Summary of Great Lakes Shipping Events
- 1790: Revenue Marine, the precursor to the present-day Coast Guard, was formed.
1798: First crude lock built at the Soo by the Northwest Fur Co.
1807: Robert Fulton sailed on the Hudson River in first steamboat.
1813: Battle of Lake Erie.
1816: Erie Canal begun.
1818: Walk-in-the-Water, the first steamer on the Lakes. First lighthouse on US side built at Buffalo, NY.
1825: Welland Canal begun.
1825: Ohio and Erie Canal begun at northern (Cleveland) terminus. Completed to Akron in 1827, and to Portsmouth on the Ohio River in 1832.
1829: Welland Canal opened.
1838: Screw propeller patented.
1845: First iron merchant vessel, Richelieu, built in Canada.
1847: Original St. Lawrence River canal system completed; Lakes ships now had access to the Atlantic Ocean.
1850: Transportation boom began on the Great Lakes.
1855: First Lock at the Soo completed. First cargo of iron ore transported from Lake Superior by the brig Columbia for the forerunners of Cleveland-Cliffs.
1860s: Era of sailing schooners on the Great Lakes.
1866: Michigan lumber shipping era begins.
1868: Peak of sailing ship era on the Lakes.
1870: US Weather Bureau created.
1871: First coal cargo taken to Duluth, MN.
1872: First ore mined at Menominee Range in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
1881: Weitzel Lock (No. 1) opened at the Soo.
1892: Lake Carriers' Association formed; successor to the Cleveland Owners Group formed 12 years previously.
1890s - 1920s: Progressive Era - second Great Lakes shipping boom.
1891: Establishment of Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company.
1918: US entered World War I: Welland Canallers (canal sized ships, 250' maximum length) developed.
1914 and 1919: US added Davis and Sabin Locks (at the Soo) measuring 1,350 x 80 x 23'.
1932: Present Welland Canal System completed with seven locks measuring 859' x 80' and an eighth measuring 1,380'.
1943: MacArthur Lock (at the Soo) completed measuring 800 x 80 x 31'.
1959: Present St. Lawrence Seaway opened. It began in 1954 as a Canadian and US joint project.
1969: Poe Lock (at the Soo) completed measuring 1,200 x 110.
1972: First 1000' x 105' vessel began service, M/V Stewart J. Cort.
1980: Economic downturn begins; many older vessels along with William G.
Mather are laid up permanently.
1981: Largest and last (to date) U.S. lake vessel is launched - William J. Delancey (now Paul R. Tregurtha) - measuring 1013.5' x 105' x 56'.
1986: Economy begins to improve. Great Lakes shipping now utilizes mostly
self-unloading vessels that greatly improve efficiency.
1981-Present: All but the most efficient lake vessels have been scrapped with a few older steam driven ore boats converted to self-unloading tug/barge units.