St. Marys River, Ontario
At the Crossroads of the Continent
Designated 2000

The St. Marys River flows eastward out of vast Lake Superior 120 kms to Lake Huron and has long been a key link for travel across the continent. This historic waterway begins tumultuously, tumbling over rapids, where native people traded and fished for thousands of years and on past the power dams, factories, and urban parks of the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario and Michigan). Lock and canal building began as early as 1798, when the Northwest Company built small locks for fur trade canoes to pass around the rapids. The Canadian lock, completed in 1895, was the most advanced in the world at that time. It was rebuilt and opened to pleasure craft in 1998. On the American side, huge lake freighters pass through the Seaway Locks. Downstream, the St. Marys flows peacefully for 100 km past forests, farmlands, cottages and the old outpost of Fort St. Joseph. But watch out for those lake freighters!