Visitor Centre and Exhibit NOW Open!

By Alisha Rosset

The Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site had a soft opening of its new visitor centre and exhibit space on June 6, 2022. The site has worked to expand and enhance its visitor offer through newly updated exhibits, as well as bringing Indigenous history to the forefront of the visitor experience.

Visitors can now learn about the site using new, interactive components available as part of the visitor centre and exhibit. To plan their onsite experience, visitors may use an interactive touch screen, which features a digital map, information on all of the key features of the site, and historic and modern photos taken since the canal’s construction. One of the most exciting new pieces is a scale model of the modern day lock. This model demonstrates how the lock functions, showing the juxtaposition of the historic machinery and modern technology in action! Learn how the historic butterfly valves open to lower water and vessels to Lake Huron levels, while the modern valves allow water to flow into the lock from above, raising the water level in the lock to the height of Lake Superior. The new lock model was designed using historic engineering plans, used to build the original lock in 1895 and reconstruct the modern recreational lock in 1998.

The Sault Ste. Marie Canal’s exhibit is also home to a handmade birch bark canoe, on loan from Batchewana First Nation. This canoe was built in 2010 for the purpose of transporting the remains of six Batchewana First Nation ancestors across the St. Mary’s River. They had been repatriated from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., to be laid to rest at Goulais Bay.

On June 24, 2022, Parks Canada, together with Batchewana First Nation and the Métis Nation of Ontario, officially marked the grand opening of the visitor centre and exhibit with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Check the Sault Ste. Marie Canal’s hours of operation, and come see the exhibit in the Visitor Centre for yourself this summer!

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