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When World War II

On August 31, 1939, passengers on the
Soo Locks’ tour boat Bide-a-Wee—moving
through the Canadian canal on a quiet Sunday
afternoon—were surprised to see soldiers on
the walls of the lock
...
Canada, through
its ties to Great Britain, had become involved in
the escalating war in Europe and was assuming
a defensive posture to protect shipping in the
Sault
...


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michigan history

Came to the Sault
By Deidre Stevens

F

ortunately for the U
...
Army, there was already a
When the 61st Anti-Aircraft Coast Artillery arrived in
military presence in Sault Ste
...
It was said the lights were so bright that a sailor
the river
...

protected the fur
Thirty-caliber
trade and then, as
machine guns
that line of business
were placed on
died out, the locks
...
Blasted
from the sky
...
Below: High-powered spotlights nearly turned night into day
...
But it
passage was used
images courtesy of the Gordon T
...

repopulated when
vessels, and its
hostilities ceased
...
According to Bernie
companies of the 2nd Infantry present
...
For the next two years, these soldiers would work in
south of the Sault
...
High fences were erected, and
sufficient to protect the locks
...

looked more closely
There was a security procedure in place, as well, for ships
at the situation
...
Paul Chandler, a journalist
theorized that the
for Associated Press who had grown up in Sault Ste
...
Even pleasure boats
occupied Norway and
were boarded and examined by the United States Coast
then approach the
Guard
...

Another theory
held that
submarines or
surface ships
could enter Canada’s Hudson Bay, approximately 400 miles
away, and mount an attack from there
...
The board decided that each country should have
its own person in charge of defenses, but that these two
people should work together on a plan
...
Marie
...
Having previously been in charge
of the security guard for the Panama Canal, he was wellsuited for this task
...

In May, the Army replaced the 2nd Infantry guarding
the locks with the 702nd Military Police Battalion
...


frequented by fishing and pleasure boats
...

A bill containing funding to replace the Weitzel Lock was
rushed through Congress and signed on March 11, 1942
...
(Previous and later locks
took an average of 10 years to complete
...

The Corps of Engineers designed the new lock—named
after General Douglas MacArthur—with thick concrete
walls built to withstand any blast and to blow inward rather
than outward
...
Lawrence
River
...
S
...
Marie, including a unit
of black soldiers who completed a searchlight crew
...

At that point in Sault history,
there were four functioning locks
on the American side (and one on
the Canadian side) of the river to
keep the freight moving
...
Marys River
...

The older Weitzel and Poe locks—
built in the 19th century—were
34 |

michigan history

Left: A deadly bridge accident in 1941 blocked access to the newer locks, and prompted construction
of the MacArthur Lock
...
Courtesy of the
Materna Collection, Chippewa County Historical Society
...
Housing
as “silver sausages
...

were serviced in the
During this
Pullar Ice Arena
same month,
on the waterfront
...

communities of
Besides the barrage
Kinross and Raco
Fort Brady (now encompassed by Lake Superior State University) was the military’s base of
balloons, April also
at the cost of about
operations in the Sault
...

of a Vital Defense Area that included most of Chippewa
Additionally, the existing Sault Ste
...
(Later, this area was expanded to a Central
upgraded, though it seemed unlikely even to the planners
Air Defense Zone, stretching 150 miles inland on the
that planes could arrive in time to fend off an air attack
...
Canada also established such a zone
...
In June of that year, a system of volunteer spotters
locks, there were more than 12,000 troops in the city—
was added in the United States, with the operations center
nearly doubling the population of Sault Ste
...
Some places were staffed 24 hours a
time
...
An Evening News article noted that there were 8,667
police, barrage balloon operators, ordnance units, chemical
volunteers—including homemakers, students, miners,
corps, Navy and Army intelligence officials, and the
business owners, and public employees—who maintained
Women’s Army Corps
...

Muskegon for enemy aircraft
...
S
...
(Much of this housing was located south of

ENCOUNTERS WITH BARRAGE BALLOONS
The enormous silver balloons that the Army positioned
over the Soo Locks to provide cover for the essential
shipping system were the subject of both awe and
apprehension
...
I cannot too strongly stress
the danger, especially for civilians, which accompanies
the handling of the balloons, both while they are being
prepared for ascent, or in the event one of them should
collapse and fall within the city
...
Additionally,

if a balloon’s cables should sever a power line, the line
could electrocute someone passing by on the ground
...
The force of the explosion blew out the
windows of the store and threw her up against the wall
...

On occasion, windstorms pulled the balloons from their
moorings
...
In
one case, a balloon landed in town on the Johnson Street
home of music teacher Sadie Kelly
...

MARCH/APRIL 2012

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homeland
...
The
nearest was spotted southeast
of DeTour Village, about
40 miles south of the locks
...
)

Remnants of the War

Military units parade down Ashmun Street in Sault Ste
...


the fort and was later used as Army Camp Lucas from 1950
to 1960
...

Emergency drills were held regularly, with civilians and
soldiers alike participating, and occasionally the military
units paraded down the Sault’s main streets
...
The War Department ordered that
the Sault contingent be reduced to 2,500 officers and
men by September 1, 1943
...
By the end of that year, there was only one
company of men left at Fort Brady
...
The design
and construction of the MacArthur Lock in record time
reinforced this opinion
...
Marie
...
But local and state
officials were quick to see
the potential of the site
...
In 1970, the institution was
granted its autonomy under the name Lake Superior State
College
...

After the war, the two oldest locks—the Davis and the
Sabin—slowly became obsolete; they were closed to all
traffic a few years ago
...
Today, about 80
percent of the canal’s traffic travels through the Poe Lock,
which was rebuilt in 1969 to accommodate the 1,000-foot
“lakers
...

Fences erected during the war still separate the public areas
of the park from the locks themselves
...
Marie was tightened even more
...

On one day each year, however, the public is allowed
more access to the facility
...

Deidre Stevens is a freelance writer and historian who
spends her summers sailing for Soo Locks Boat Tours

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