Michigan historical collections . the lake with about a ten-mile breeze and went on through the rapids. In just a little while she ran ontoa bowlder and knocked off her forefoot, but nobody was hurt that I remember. Ibelieve she was the only vessel that ever attempted the trick. The Indians were very skillful with their canoes in the rapids, but once a yawl-boat, with a party of nine on board, tried to make the run. A sailor in the boatstruck his oar against a rock and turned the boat about so that she filled andsunk, and seven of the party were drowned. Even sixty years ago life was pleasant
Michigan historical collections . the lake with about a ten-mile breeze and went on through the rapids. In just a little while she ran ontoa bowlder and knocked off her forefoot, but nobody was hurt that I remember. Ibelieve she was the only vessel that ever attempted the trick. The Indians were very skillful with their canoes in the rapids, but once a yawl-boat, with a party of nine on board, tried to make the run. A sailor in the boatstruck his oar against a rock and turned the boat about so that she filled andsunk, and seven of the party were drowned. Even sixty years ago life was pleasant at the Soo. There was a hotel kept bya man by the name of Van Anden, I believe. The houses were all built either oflog or frame—no brick ones. There was a great deal of social life, and everybodyseemed to enjoy themselves. The lock was not dreamed of then, of course, butnobody can appreciate more fully the importance of its construction and thesignificance of the celebration than some of us who remember the Soo sixty THE MICHIGAN STATE LOCK OF 1855. SAULT STE. MARIE AND THE CANAL FIFTY YEARS AGO. 349 peninsula, perhaps a thousand if we leave out the settlements at Macki-nac straits. I have no means of knowing how many Indians therewere. Those who came to Mackinac numbered about 10,000 each year,but they came from south of the straits as well as north, and fromas far away as the islands in Green bay. They were migratory in theirhabits, ranging far and wide in search of game, fish and furs. Therewere of course a few Indian trails, but none of them led to the ironmountains of Lake Superior. The water route, I might say the ice-water route, was all there was for us. The trip on the Ste. Marys river, with all its remarkable beauty, isof course, entirely familiar to all who were present at the Soo cele-bration. But beautiful as the river now is, it has changed immenselyboth for the better and for the worse since I first saw it. It haschanged for the better, since it seem
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