About half an hour north-east of Brockville is a tiny little town called Iroquois situated on the banks of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is connected by 5 short canals consisting of 15 locks - I've seen the Welland Canal which consists of 8 locks (7 of them in the north end and the 1 in the south) which connects Lake Ontario to Lake Erie.
The Iroquois canal contains only 1 lock and is only 0.3 nautical miles the smallest of the 5 (the other three canals are named South Shore, Beauharnois and the Wiley-Dondero).
Altogether the Seaway canals are made up of 15 locks which are filled and emptied by gravity. I've always found this such a spectacular event when it's put in motion.
While visiting, the lock was lifted to allow a large Algoma Conveyor which carries a max cargo dead-weight of 36800 megatons, with the ability to discharge cargo at a rate of 5400 MT an hour. You've probably seen the Algoma many times if you live near Lake Ontario as it is currently used to trade in all areas of the Great Lakes with cargoes of grain, salt and iron ore among an oleo of other materials (aggregate) carried in 5 separate 'holds' on the vessels.
If you pass through Iroquois you might also want to check out the Iroquois beach in the warmer month especially if you have kids. The beach is marked by buoy lines and has floating docks connected to the shore.
Great sand and shallow water entry so safer for young kids - they also have lifeguards on staff along with change rooms.
It was a beautiful day in May, so the parking lot was completely full with waiting cars to get in after over a year of being cooped and the long winter this would have explained that!
We made the next detour to the watch the lift locks here instead. Lots of history right here in Ontario to discover.
