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Hunts' Guide to Michigan's UPPER PENINSULA

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SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN
POINTS
OF INTEREST

Soo Locks Park & Visitor Center. This is the place to get really close-up views of giant freighters, plus see some interesting exhibits ... more

Soo Lock Train Tours. Great intro to Soo. Smart, funny 1-hour narrated tour of historic sites. From International Bridge, look down 135' on all 5 locks. ... more

Soo Locks Boat Tour. This 2-hour excursion provides a dramatic look at the big locks, the quaint Canadian locks, and the Twin Soo's waterfronts. ... more

River of History Museum. Compelling life-size dioramas bring to life scenes from Sault Ste. Marie's long history and prehistory. ... more

Riverfront walk along Water Street and Brady Park. See upbound boats waiting at the locks at beautiful Brady Park, site of the 19th c. fort. See interesting historic monuments from Sault Ste. Marie's aspiring years, including idiosyncratic Chase Osborn, the only U.P. governor. ... more

Bingham Avenue historic buildings. An avenue of grand 19th-century buildings, from a time when locals saw a grander future for the city than actually unfolded ... more

Tower of History. An oustanding geographical of the area from a 21-story tower. ... more

St. Mary's Pro-cathedral. This 1880s cathedral has a wonderful interior, with richly colored stained glass and striking wall accents ... more

Schoolcraft, Johnston and Baraga houses. Three of the earliest and most significant houses in Upper Peninsula history ... more

George Kemp Downtown Marina . A nice picnic area at a beautiful marina ... more

Museum Ship Valley Camp . A 1917 Great Lakes steamship is the vehicle for an interesting maritime museum ... more

St. Mary's River Lighthouse Cruise. A 4-hour journey past landmarks like the lighthouse at the entrance to the St. Marys River ... more

Edison Sault Power Plant & Alford Park. This 1902 quarter-mile-long landmark never attracted the industries it was built to serve, but still generates electricity ... more

Mission Point, Aune Osborn Park & Sugar Island Ferry. It's been called the #1 place anywhere to see Great Lakes freighters in motion ... more

Sugar Island. Once a favorite Chippewa sugaring spot, the island still has many maples and still is a popular stop for migrating birds ... more

New Fort Brady/Lake Superior State University. Begun in 1893 as an Army fort and barracks for 20,000 troops, this overlook now is the site of 3,300-student Lake Superior State University ... more

International Bridge. Connecting the 5,000-mile Trans-Canada Highway with 2,000-mile I-75 to Florida, this 1962 bridge does much more than connect the two Soos ... more

SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN

Soo Locks Boat Tour

The Soo Locks Boat Tour offers a dramatic ship's perspective of the locks. Come early to get seats at the front of the boat if possible. The two-hour excursion ($19 adults; $9 children) takes you through the locks up to the level of Lake Superior, passing under the 2.8-mile-long International Bridge to Canada. The tour boat goes through both the Canadian and American locks.

You are treated to a rather surrealistic view of Canada's huge riverfront Algoma Steel, with thousands of employees and five blast furnaces. On the wharf are enormous piles of purplish taconite pellets from Lake Superior's iron-mining regions. Across the river, you see downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, and its waterfront. The narrative, like that in many tours, has involved too many statistics and too few ideas to make the statistics meaningful. But most visitors love the tour. Note: The locks tour from the Canadian side has a fresh narration, rewritten at the behest of local historical groups. We haven't heard it, but it might be worth a try.

The slightly longer sunset dinner cruise ($41 for adults, $30 for children) gets you out on the water at a beautiful time, what with the light effects and the reflected blaze of the Algoma Steel furnaces on the water. The dinner buffet, with whitefish or roast beef entrée, is quite good.

Boat tour docks are along East Portage east of Ashmun/Bus. I-75 and the locks. One dock is next to the Museum Ship Valley Camp on Portage, half a mile east of Ashmun; another is 1.7 miles east of Ashmun, beyond the Edison Sault powerhouse. Regular season is from mid May into mid October. At the least, tours are at 11:30 a.m. and 2 and 4 p.m. In July and August boats leave hourly or more often between 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. For the complex, changing schedule, call (800) 432-6301 or pick up a brochure - they're everywhere. Buy tickets ahead of time. Adults $19, ages 4-12 $9, age 3 and under free. Wheelchair-accessible.

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