July 11 at soo canals

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Today was a tour day except for the last photos taken at 9:00 tonight
The first photo is of a retired great lakes freighter that is a muswum, The pictures was taken from the bridge looking back toward the stern. This ship is 688 ft long and 68 ft. wide. It belonged to Republic steel and was used to haul ore totheir mills. The last photo for today is a side shot of this ship so you can get a sense of the size. Inside is a museum of the great lakes aritfacts and displays about the lakes and an exhibit about the edmund fitzgerald that was loat in 1975 with all hands. Museun is very well done and educational.
The next series of pics is of the tower of history.It haS an interesting history. It was origionally commisioned by the cathollic bishop for this area as a modernistic depiction of christ on the cross between the two thieves and was to be part of a new modernistic catholic church on the site, However it overrran its budget and had money problems and didnt look exactly like it was supposed to so it was turned into a history museum by the churhc and depicts their influence on the region and the history of the region going back to indians fishing the sault (falls in french).
the first pics no. 2 is looking at the river from the history tower. No,3 is looking east down portage st. No, 4 is looking down at the van camp museum. No, 5 is looking west of the van camp. no 6 is looking down portage street west toward the rv park where i am, no. 7 isthe history tower - must turn on side , it didnt fit the other way. This was taken from almost a block away.
Pisc 8 and 9 go togather. no 8 is the bow of this ship in the lock it is very close to the doors into lake superior, No 9 is the stern. It barely cleared the doors in the st marys river for closing. I couldnt get all of the ship in these two pics, there is about 1/3 in the middle missing. This ship is 1000 ft long and 105 ft wide.It is one of the biggest ships that will fit in the lock Footnote- when it left it just barely went under the international bridge. pic no. 10 is the ship approaching the lock up the st marys river. No, 11 is another shot of the ship approaching the lock.
This is the reason i am so late tonight with the post. it was about an hour going thru the lock and left at 10:00 pm
I found a coo web site this afternoon when i was bumming around in the corps of engineers visitors center.it is a real streaming video of the locks and what is happening. Only thing it is a little time delayed for security reasons.
www.boatnerd.com
Yomorrow is a travel day I am going west across the upper pedninsula to ishpeming. Next day will be hayward wisconsin.