Watch The Freighters Rise At The Soo Locks

Watch The Freighters Rise At The Soo Locks
Leah
Leah 
Updated
| 4 min read

Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie), home of the famous Soo Locks, lies on both sides of the Canadian and U.S. border. On the Michigan side, at the northern end of town near Saint Mary’s River, dozens of eateries, stores, and fudge shops wait to entertain tourists along East Portage Avenue. The grounds bordering and overlooking the locks have been cultivated into a shady park. Guests can enter for free and watch the massive freighters slowly enter the locks and be pumped up or down. A Visitors Center and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society Museum are also free, and both are full of exhibits about the locks and Michigan’s maritime history. No trip through Northern Michigan is complete without a visit to watch the ships in the locks.

A new viewing platform lets you watch from three stories

The Ojibway entering the locks.

Those who remember the old metal tube bleachers may miss the spray of water on the breeze, and the sense of intimate closeness with the ships that slip by, but the new platform is a vast improvement for several reasons. Firstly, it’s wheelchair and stroller friendly. Secondly, the structure provides shelter from the rain, whether coming down from above or at an angle. Thirdly, the platform is much bigger, with three viewing decks at different heights; each level offers a different perspective of the freighters sitting in the water.

Touring the locks

Across the locks, seen from the viewing deck. Canada in the distance.

The Soo Locks perform a vital shipping function, allowing freighters to travel from Lake Huron to Lake Superior by navigating up St. Mary’s River. The locks bypass a set of falls that total 21 feet in height. The ships enter the locks at one end, and are pumped up or down to match the water level at the other side.

It’s fascinating to watch the giant vessels levitate or sink. Visitors have been coming to watch the ships pass through the Soo Locks since the first lock was finished in 1855. Now, guests number about 1 million per year. The park and viewing platform are open from 6 am to 12 midnight during the summer season, and from 6 am to 6 pm through the winter.

Soo Locks Boat Tours offers an up-close experience with the locks. Tour boats take visitors right through the locks alongside commercial freighters. Tour packages and fees vary.

Have fun and stay Informed: Explore the Visitors Center

A scale model of what the locks used to look like.

While you’re waiting for the next big ship to come by, you can entertain yourself in the Soo Locks Visitors Center. While the park is open year-round, the center is open from mid-May to mid-October. The building is open from 9 am until 9 pm every day.

The center’s exhibits are designed to educate about how the locks work. But you won’t know you’re being educated, since everything is so much fun. Attractions include a reproduction 12-foot birch bark canoe, made by a Chippewa Indian right on the premises. Informational films also run throughout the day.

You can enjoy exploring the center without worrying about missing a boat – the freighter schedules are posted at the front desk.

An unusual map of the Great Lakes

This 3-D model gives visitors a chance to really visualize how deep the Great Lakes go.

The geological trivia and maritime history of the Great Lakes is a fascination and topic unto itself. This network of inland seas is unique in the world, and is arguably the defining attribute of Michigan’s beauty and mystery. Sault Ste. Marie sits in a relatively small part of the state where the largest three of these lakes come together: Superior, Michigan, and Huron.

The Soo Locks were built as a result of this crux of shipping lanes. But traveling the volatile Great Lakes has always been fraught with danger. In the Visitors Center, a three-dimensional map gives visitors a spaceman-eye view of this vast complex of seas and waterways. Although the image doesn’t do it justice, this map gives the viewer a real sense of just how deep Lake Superior really goes. Gitchigoomie, as the Native Americans called it, is the largest inland freshwater body in the world.

Don’t miss the Shipwreck Museum

One of the eerily life-like models in the museum.

On the grounds of the park lies the old Weather Bureau Building. Nowadays, this building is the headquarters for the administrative offices for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. Within the last few years, they’ve opened a Shipwreck Museum on the ground floor. (This is not to be confused with the more famous Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point.) The museum is open year-round, and the on-staff docent is a wealth of knowledge on the subjects of Michigan’s great getaways and its maritime history.

The museum contains exhibits, a shipwreck library, and a gift shop, and this is a great place to hunt for souvenirs of your trip. Exhibits in the museum are top-notch, and feature the work of well-known artists. In one display case, a life-like carved wooden loon and chick sit and eye visitors. Another case contains a scale model of the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald, Michigan’s most famous downed ship. The most compelling display, by far, though, has to be the life-size human sculptures wearing authentic diving gear. They’re convincing enough that you might just say, “excuse me,” when you come upon them.

The Soo Locks: A unique experience

Whatever your plans for touring Upper Michigan and the Great Lakes, be sure to take a few hours and soak up one of Michigan’s most treasured attractions. There’s nothing quite like seeing a massive freighter lifted, inch by inch, 21 feet, and released into higher water.

Disclosure: Trip101 selects the listings in our articles independently. Some of the listings in this article contain affiliate links.

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I love exploration. I was on my first camping trip mere weeks after my birth, and I’ve sought out new experiences ever since. I wrote my first travel narrative at twelve years old, about a family...Read more

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