In Sault Ste. Marie, we are familiar with our east end marina located at 2442 Riverside Drive, named the Charles T. Harvey Marina. It is the City’s principal marina, open from mid-May through mid-October, on a 5.4-acre lot. It has 31 boat slips with electricity and water, pump-out service and shower and restroom facilities.
If you wish to learn more about Charles Thompson Harvey, you can go to the Bayliss Public Library, the Kenneth J. Shouldice Library or purchase the following books at your local book stores:
The Mail and Empire by Charles T. Harvey;
Pioneer Sault Canal by Charles T. Harvey;
Young Mister Big. The Story of Charles Thompson Harvey: The Young Travelling Salesman Who Built the World’s Mightiest Canal by William Ratigan.
Semi-Centennial Reminiscences of the Sault Canal 1852-1855 by Charles Thompson Harvey and daughters Sarah Van Eps and Anna Harvey Voorhis.
In remembrance of the opening of the State Lock, a permanent memorial was provided in a resolution of the Michigan Legislature. The Egyptian styled obelisk is located at the foot of Bingham Avenue on Water Street. It is 44 feet high, with four inscriptions at its base.
The North Tablet reads as such: “Beside these rapids, June 14, 1671, Daumont de Lusson, Nicolas Perrot, Louis Joliet and Fathers Dablon, Druillettes, Allouez and Andrè claimed possession of all the lands from the seas of the north and west to the south seas, for Louis XIV of France. In 1763, the lake region was ceded to England as a portion of Canada, and at the close of the Revolution, Saint Mary’s River became part of the national boundaries. In 1797, the North West Fur Company built a bateau canal and lock on the Canadian bank. In 1820, Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory, here established the authority of the United States from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.”
The East Tablet reads as such: “The XXXII Congress having made a grant of public lands to aid the construction of a ship canal around Saint Mary’s Falls, the State of Michigan contracted with Joseph P. Fairbanks, John W. Books, Erastus Corning, August Belmont, Henry Dwight, Jr., and Thomas Dwyer, Principals; and Franklin Moore, George F. Porter, John Owen, James F. Joy, and Hendy P. Baldwin, Sureties, to build a canal according to the plans of Capt. Augustus Canfield, U.S.A. The work of construction was accomplished by Charles T. Harvey, C.E. who overcame many serious obstacles and incidents to the remote situation. The canal, opened June 18, 1855, was operated by the State until June 9, 1881, when it was transferred to the United States and made free to all vessels. Superintendents under the State: John Burt, Elisha Calkins, Samuel P. Mead, George W. Brown, Guy H. Carleton, Frank Gorton, John Spalding.”
The West Tablet reads as such: “In 1856, Congress first made appropriations to improve Saint Mary’s River under the direction of the Corps of Engineers, U.S.A. Capt John Navarre Macomb and Capt. Amiel Weeks Whipple had charge of the work until 1861; and Col. Thomas Jefferson Cram, Maj. Walter McFarlane and Maj. Orlando Metcalfe Poe from 1866 to 1873. The Weitzel Lock was built between 1876 and 1881 by Maj. Godfrey Weitzel, assisted by Capt. Alexander MacKenzie, Maj. Francis Ulric Farquhar, and Capt. David Wright Lockwood were in charge, from 1881-1883. From 1883 to 1896, the canal was enlarged and the Poe Lock built by Col. Poe, on the site of the State Lock. From 1895 to 1905, the officers in charge successively were Lieut. James Bates Cavanaugh, Col. Garrett J. Lydecker, Col. William H. Bixby, Maj. Walter Leslie Fisk, and Col. Charles E. L. B. Davis. General Superintendents under the United States; Alfred Noble, Eben S. Wheeler, Joseph Ripley. Superintendents: John Spalding, William Chandler, Martin Lynch, Donald M. MacKenzie.”
The South Tablet reads as such: “This monument, erected by the United States, the State of Michigan, and the mining and transportation interests of the Great Lakes, commemorates the Fiftieth Anniversary of the opening of Saint Mary’s Falls Canal, celebrated August 2 and 3, 1905; Theodore Roosevelt being President; Fred M. Warner, Governor, Celebration commissioners: Peter White, Horace Mann Oren, Charles Moore. Chief Marshal: Charles T. Harvey.”
Source: Saint Marys Falls Canal Semicentennial 1905
Edited and compiled by Charles Moore – 1907 (286 pages).