Sault Saint Marie MI

 Our drive from Wolverine to Sault Sainte Marie was uneventful and relatively short.  We logged only 100 miles.  We are scheduled to be here for 6 nights and will attend the Michigan State Rally of the Newmar Kountry Klub, our manufacture's owners club.  

On this day we crossed the Mackinaw Bridge, the "Mighty Mac". The Mackinaw Bridge crosses the Straits of Mackinac and connects Michigan's lower and upper peninsulas.  The Mac is a very impressive structure.  It was completed in 1957.  It has the longest span between anchorages of any suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere, and the total shore-to-shore distance is 5 miles. The maximum clearance to the water below is 155 feet. Driving across the bridge is a little daunting. The bridge authority provides a service for those psychologically unable to drive their vehicle across the bridge.

Crossing the "Mighty Mac"

I happen to be a bridge nut.  I chose to become a civil engineer because of my fascination with bridges.  However, after taking my first course in structures at NC State University, my desire to design bridges was diminished.  Consequently, I changed my specialty to environmental engineering.  So bear with me as I indulge:

Facts and figures (Ref: Wikipedia):

• The Mackinac Bridge is currently a toll bridge on Interstate 75. Prior to the coming of I-75, the bridge carried US Highway 27 (US 27). It is one of only three segments of I-75 that are tolled, the others being the American half of the International Bridge near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Alligator Alley in Florida. The current toll is $4.00 for automobiles and $5.00 per axle for trucks. The Mackinac Bridge Authority raised the toll in 2007 to fund a $300 million renovation program, which would include completely replacing the bridge deck.
• Every Labor Day, the bridge is open to walkers for the Mackinac Bridge Walk.
• Painting of the bridge takes seven years, and when painting of the bridge is complete, it begins again. The current painting project began in 1999 and was expected to take 20 years to complete because the lead-based paint needs to be removed, incurring additional disposal requirements.
• The bridge celebrated its 150 millionth vehicle crossing on September 6, 2009.
• Length from cable bent pier to cable bent pier: 7,400 feet.
• Total width of the roadway: 54 feet.
• Two outside lanes: 12 feet wide each
• Two inside lanes: 11 feet wide each
• Width of stiffening truss in the suspended span: 68 feet.
• Depth of stiffening truss: 38.1 feet.
• Height of the roadway at mid-span: approximately 200 feet above water level.
• Vertical clearance at normal temperature:

155 feet at the center of the main suspension span.

135 feet at the boundaries of the 3,000 feet wide navigation channel.

• Construction cost: $99.8 million (equivalent to $696 million in 2018.
• Height of towers above water: 552 feet.
• Max. depth of towers below water: 210 feet.
• Depth of water beneath the center of the bridge, 250 feet.
• Main cables:

Number of wires in each cable: 12,580

Diameter of each wire: 0.196 inches

Diameter of each cable: 24.5 inches

Total length of wire in main cables: 42,000 miles

• Total vehicle crossings, 2005: 4,236,491 (average 11,608 per day)
• Speed limit: 45 miles per houfor passenger cars, 20 miles per hour for heavy trucks. Heavy trucks are also required to leave 500 feet spacing ahead.

Current bridge conditions and live web cams can be seen HERE

A view from web cam

Sault Ste. Marie (population 14,144) is the second-most populated city in the Upper Peninsula. Sault Ste. Marie was settled as early as 1668, which makes it Michigan's oldest city and among the oldest cities in the United States. Located at the northeastern edge of the Upper Peninsula, it is separated by the St. Marys River from the larger Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (population 73,368). The two are connected by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, which represents the northern terminus of Interstate 75.  Ironically, this is the first time we have spent the night in Sault Ste. Marie MI, but we have spent the night in Sault Ste. Marie ON CA on at least three previous trips. 

The city name was derived from the French term for the nearby rapids, which were called Les Saults de Sainte Marie. Sainte Marie (Saint Mary) was the name of the river and Saults referred to the rapids.

We stayed at Aune Osborne Campground, owned and operated by the city of Sault Ste. Marie

Our home at Aune Osborne Campground

Dorcas and I have discovered and love Popeye's Spicy Cajun chicken sandwiches. Shortly after arriving in Sault Ste. Marie we had a craving and did a Goole search, and were surprised to find a Popeye's restaurant only 2.4 miles from our camp.  When we routed to the store we found it was across the river in Canada, and it would require an international border crossing to get to it.  DANG!  What's this world coming to when you have to drive to Canada to get a Cajun chicken sandwich?

Gull's eye view of our campsite

Sault Ste. Marie is at the eastern end of Lake Superior.  All freighter traffic entering or leaving Lake Superior must pass by our camp site.  We saw lots of freighters. 

Aune Osborne Campground

On Friday we took a locks tour. 

Dorcas and I played a game of checkers while waiting to board our boat.  Neither of use has played checkers in as long as we can remember. Dorcas is no fun with board games.  She gave up for no good reason and intentionally let me jump all her remaining men.  

This is the the Cloverland Electric Cooperative Hydroelectric Plant.  This plant receives water from above the Sault Ste Marie falls and can produce 36 megawatts of power.  Construction was completed in 1902, and at the time of completion, the plant was the second largest hydro facility next to Niagara Falls.  The hydro plant is constructed of red sandstone which was excavated from the power canal. The plant is a quarter-mile long, 80 feet wide, and has 74 horizontal shaft turbines.

Note the artistic lighthouse motif

The MacArthur Lock on the left and the Poe Lock on the right looking upbound

I am also a lock nut (isn't that a type of fastener?) so please indulge me again. There are currently 2 American locks operating, the MacArthur Lock and the Poe Lock. The locks pass an average of 10,000 ships per year, despite being closed during the winter from January through March, when ice shuts down shipping on the Great Lakes. The winter closure period is used to inspect and maintain the locks.  

The MacArthur Lock, built in 1943, is 800 feet long, 80 feet wide, and 29.5 feet deep.  This is large enough to handle ocean-going vessels ("salties") that must also pass through the smaller locks in the Welland Canal at Lake Erie. 

The original Poe Lock, at 800 feet long and 100 feet wide, was the largest in the world when completed in 1896. The lock was re-built in 1968 to accommodate larger ships, after the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened and made passage of such ships possible to the Great Lakes. It is now 1,200 feet long, 110 feet wide, and 32 feet deep. It can take ships carrying 72,000 short tons of cargo. The Poe is the only lock that can handle the large 1000' lake freighters used on the upper lakes. 

A new lock is currently under construction and is slated to be completed by 2030. Groundbreaking for the new lock project was held on June 30, 2009. The lock will be equal in size to the Poe Lock and will provide much needed additional capacity for the large lake freighters. The new lock replaces two locks, the Davis Lock and the Sabin Lock which were obsolete and used infrequently. 

This image is an artist rendering showing the currently unnamed and uncompleted "super lock" on the left and the existing Poe and MacArthur locks on the right.

Frequently Asked Soo Locks Questions

9 Things You May Not Know About the Soo Locks

A sister boat to ours

Entering the MacArthur Lock

Dorcas!  Look this way!

Our fearless skipper

We did this tour once before in 2014. On that excursion we went upstream through the American Soo Locks and returned downstream through the Canadian locks, which are much smaller and serve exclusively pleasure and tourist vessels.  On this trip we were not able to pass through the Canadian locks.  Very disappointing!  The Canadian government closed those locks to US vessels earlier this year, presumably due to Covid concerns. Ironically, the closure was announced just one week after the US ended the Keystone Pipeline project, and the Canadians still allow US paddlers, i.e. kayaks and canoes to use the locks.  Go figure.

The river drops 21 feet over 3/4 mile at the Sault rapids, hence the need for the locks

We enjoyed a lunch at The Antlers restaurant.  It felt as though we might BE the lunch at The Antlers restaurant.

Moose Drool is one of my favorite beers.  Moose drool is not desirable at your  dining table.

How many RVers does it take to erect a circus tent?

The ladies helped too

A 1997 Newmar London Aire, a very rare vintage model

Just downstream from our campsite was the ferry to Sugar Island.  It takes vehicles of all kinds

An avian squatter at our campsite

We are enjoying some fine cool weather in the UP.  The last few mornings were in the low 50s, but it is warming.  Following are some current temperatures on this morning:

Back home in NC it is just plain hot!

We will be in Ely MN in about 1 1/2 weeks, where it is downright frosty!

Our Michiganer friends travel in comfort.

And they bring fudge!!!!

On Saturday we toured the town of Sault Ste. Marie, and we bought a ticket to the Tower of History, a 210' concrete observation tower overlooking the river. The Tower of History was built in 1968 by the Catholic Church as the Shrine of the Missionaries. The Shrine was meant to be part of a larger complex which would have featured exhibits about the early Missionaries such as Bishop Baraga. A community center and a new Church were also planned. The Church later cut the project in favor of other endeavors, and the Shrine of the Missionaries was donated to the Sault Historic Sites in 1980. It has been operated as the Tower of History ever since.  The following photos are from atop The Tower of History.  

A view of downtown Sault Ste. Marie and the Tower of History

At another campground on the way to town we spotted a Country Coach "Veranda" model.  The Veranda was a radical design that featured a wall panel that dropped down and out of the side of the coach to form a raised open patio.  It didn't prove to be very popular, and very few Verandas were produced.  Its cost of development and production, combined with a general economic downturn around 2009, likely led to the demise of Country Coach Corporation.

Tomorrow we move about 65 miles west to Newberry MI for three nights.  We hope to do some paddling while we are there before continuing west once more