Looking east from Howard Smith, the tall stack on the South (right-hand) river bank is the old pump house for Howard Smith/Domtar. It was still in operation until the Seaway went through in 1958. The pumps were powered by steam, thus the need for boilers and the stack/chimney. In many canal pictures of this area at Domtar, there seems to be no appreciable drop in water level across the locks and often there is one gate open, usually the east-end one. The west gate pointed toward upstream, to hold water back, by design. In the old days, the drop was about six to seven feet. In more recent times the water level never varied by more than 2 feet, and the only reason the locks were there was to maintain a hydraulic head upstream of the Domtar weir and still allow vessels passage. This level difference was 1) to create the flow into the mill water intake and 2) not allow for any backwashing in intakes from outlets downstream. A Google satellite map will show an interesting bird’s eye view of this area of the canal which still exists in the area of the former Howard Smith Paper Mill//Domtar property.

~ Notes: Ray Amell.