Previous to the construction of the St. Mary’s Falls Canal, all the outside supplies for the upper lake had to be unloaded at the foot of the rapids, transferred over a portage road to the head of the rapids, and reshipped at great expense. Even the vessels which were sailing on Lake Superior had been handed out and dragged around the rapids in the same way. The transfer and supply business became the great industry, and as the mining fever developed, and the Lake Superior district began to boast of its few scattered but permanent settlements, it seemed as if Sault Ste Marie was destined to be the central and chief city of this region. The portage trade, in the very nature of things, could not last. The demands of Lake Superior were too urgent to admit of the delay and harassment incident to this method of transfer, and the construction of a ship canal around the rapids became a practical problem which demanded a speedy solution. Governor Mason in 1837, in his first message, advised the building of such a canal, and during the same year a survey was made for that purpose. In 1838 an appropriation bill was passed by the Legislature, and in the following year the contractors commenced the work. Much to their surprise, the military authorities considered the work an infringement upon the rights of the General Government, and an armed force from Fort Brady drove the contractors off the ground. This put a quietus to the work for several years, although the advocates of the measure did not cease to urge it upon the attention of the State Legislature and Congress. In 1852, however, the latter passed a Bill appropriating 750,000 acres of land to aid in the construction of a canal. In 1853 the Legislature authorised the commencement of the work. The contract was let to construct two consecutive locks, each 350 feet long, 70 feet wide, with a depth of 13 feet of water, and proper canal approaches. These were the old State locks, now about to be removed and replaced by a single lock which, as already stated, will in its dimensions and capacity, be the largest in the world. This canal has resulted in adding Lake Superior to that system of waterways which is the pride and the chief commercial feature of the northern border.