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at “the soo” 269 Twelve “The wildest expectations of One Year Seem absolutely tame . . . the next” At “the Soo” with Sherman contentedly retired, Poe’s official role as engineer aidede -camp came to an end. he and his family happily moved back to Detroit where Brevet Brigadier General Poe was ready and eager to assume his new role as superintendent of iron and harbor works and whose territory stretched from lake erie all the way westward to lake Superior. Shipping tonnage on the Great lakes was growing at a steady clip each year, and the ships used to carry the vast natural resource and mineral wealth were likewise increasing in size. Thus Poe’s primary mission was to make sure that the area’s crucial waterways were wide and deep enough to handle the ever-increasing freight. to be sure, there was an ample number of projects well under way, several of which Poe had been actively involved in for fifteen years. considering his just concluded position as engineering aide-de-camp to the general of the army, Poe was certainly well acquainted with the nature and status of each project. There was ongoing Michigan harbor work at the port towns of cheboygan, Thunder Bay, and au Sable. also under way were the dredging and widening projects for the Saginaw, Detroit, and clinton rivers, again all in Michigan. high on his list of priorities were the enhancements at the St. clair Flats and the St. Marys Falls canal.1 nestled in between these projects were the occasional trips outside the area to serve on various examining boards, such as in 1885 when Poe served as president of the Board of visitors to the United States naval academy. Poe’s eldest son, charles, had been a recent graduate of the naval academy, in part prompting the invitation to the young man’s father. The board’s purpose was to inquire into the midshipmen’s state of morale and discipline and the school’s 269 270 orlando m. poe curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and any other matters relating to the academy that the board felt appropriate.2 examining boards from other parts of the country also sought his expertise for their respective engineering projects. For example, Poe’s previous and ongoing experience with shipping locks landed him on a board of engineer officers in nashville in 1887 for the purpose of determining the appropriate size for locks then planned for the cumberland river just below nashville. current plans called for a passageway 60 feet wide and 250 feet long, yet local boatmen were adamant that such a lock was too large, thereby increasing their costs and causing delays due to smaller appropriations. Such critics were often quite vocal. The board, which included Poe and another civil war friend, william e. Merrill, who had been chief engineer of the army of the cumberland, dismissed their concerns straightaway. with considerable past experience and ample foresight, Poe coolly remarked, “[we] attach no importance to the opinions of river navigators touching this question, as these very men would be the first to build larger, and therefore more economical boats, and then blame the engineers for having failed to provide sufficient accommodations.”3 Such opinions were definitely on Poe’s mind upon his return to Michigan. By any measure, the most crucial of his projects was ensuring that the locks on the St. Marys Falls canal at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, were adequate to handle the ever-growing need. as mentioned earlier, that river was in reality a series of rapids that dropped twenty-one feet and formed the connecting waterway from lake Superior into lake huron. The original State locks had opened in 1855 and could now serve only the smallest of Great lakes ships. For all current intents and purposes, they were obsolete. right next to them was the newer weitzel lock, posthumously named for Gen. Godfrey weitzel of the army’s engineer corps following his death in 1884. it was this lock that Poe had helped design and get off the ground in the early 1870s. Following Poe’s ascension to Sherman’s staff, weitzel had overseen the construction throughout the 1870s. The lock opened in 1881, and at a length of 515 feet and a width of 80 feet that narrowed to 60 feet at the gates, it could handle the largest ships then in existence. Poe later deemed it “an admirable structure” that “splendidly serves it purpose,” yet...

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