The Treacherous Thousand Island Shipping Channel

During the Gilded Age, the Thousand Islands occupied a unique position between leisure and industry. While the region became renowned for opulent summer estates and grand hotels, it also lay along the St. Lawrence River shipping channel. The movement of cargo vessels through this island-filled corridor shaped daily life.

By the late nineteenth century, the St. Lawrence River was a critical link between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic world. Steam-powered freighters carrying grain, timber, and ore passed through the Thousand Islands on their way to international markets. These working vessels shared the river with excursion steamers and private yachts, creating a contrast between industrial purpose and Gilded Age leisure.

Navigating the shipping channel through the islands was challenging and dangerous. Strong currents, fog, narrow passages, and hidden shoals made precise navigation essential at night. Lighthouses became the backbone of river safety. Strategically placed on exposed points and isolated islands, they marked channel edges, warned of hazards, and guided ships through tight turns. Range lights worked in pairs, allowing pilots to align vessels accurately within the dredged channel.

Governments on both sides of the border invested heavily in lighthouse construction and maintenance, recognizing that safe passage was vital to commerce. Lighthouse keepers and their families lived year-round in remote conditions, tending lamps, cleaning lenses, and monitoring weather to ensure the lights never failed.

For island residents and vacationers, the lighthouses became familiar landmarks. At night, their steady beams traced arcs across the water, a reassuring presence amid the river’s movement. Watching freighters follow these lights underscored the balance between beauty and industry.

In the Thousand Islands during the Gilded Age, lighthouses symbolized connection. They made possible the coexistence of grand leisure estates and global trade, ensuring the same river carrying elegance and escape could safely carry the commerce of a modernizing world.

ABOUT EMMA’S ENGAGEMENT

Book 3 of the Love in a Lighthouse series:

Emma Row yearns to build a loving family. But becoming the Rock Island Lightkeeper's wife brings treacherous waters of isolation and the bitter rejection of her new stepdaughter, Ada. Michael Diepolder, the widowed lightkeeper, had hoped marriage would simplify life but realizes that the path to happiness is far more turbulent than he ever anticipated. Emma and Michael must confront the tempestuous waves of doubt, jealousy, and isolation that threaten to extinguish the light of their love. Can they weather the storm and find the strength to keep their family together, or will the darkness consume them all?

ABOUT SUSAN:

Susan G Mathis is an international award-winning, multi-published author of stories set in the beautiful Thousand Islands in upstate NY. Susan has been published more than thirty times in full-length novels, novellas, and non-fiction books. She has sixteen in her fiction line. Susan is also a published author of two premarital books, stories in a dozen compilations, and hundreds of published articles. Susan lives in Northern Virginia and enjoys traveling the world. Visit www.SusanGMathis.com/fiction for more.

Thea Foss – Always Ready

 By Suzanne Norquist

Thea Foss never intended to start a tugboat company. But, despite her fear of water, that's exactly what she did. The company's motto, "Always Ready," describes the personality trait that led her to success. As a fiercely independent young mother, she understood how to meet people's needs. Since she lived with her husband and family on the Tacoma waterway, most of those needs involved boats. This led to the creation of the business known today as the Foss Maritime Company. 

Born in 1857 in Eidsberg, Norway, Thea Christiansen Foss left school at age fourteen to help family members. She met and fell in love with her sister's brother-in-law, Andreas Oleson, who later Americanized his name to Andrew Foss. He worked as a ship's carpenter.

The couple decided to move to America and marry. Andrew went ahead and sent funds for her passage. However, Thea refused to let him pay for her travel. Instead, she earned the money as a housekeeper. The couple married in 1881 when she arrived on her own.

After eight years in Minneapolis, Andrew grew tired of the harsh winters, and he missed the sea, so he decided to move the family of five to Washington State. He went ahead and built a houseboat for them to live in. Thea followed on the train eight months later with three children under the age of five.

She arrived at her floating home, a rough wooden structure with a tarpaper roof and sparse furnishings. Seeing her husband's pride, she accepted the conditions as temporary.

Both of her boys fell into the bay on the first day, adding to her fear of water. A fear that never completely left her.

The family had a rough start, with Thea battling Typhoid-pneumonia for several months and relying on the generosity of a local doctor. Then they moved the houseboat to a new pier when the city diverted the waterway. And Andrew had to leave home for a couple of months to take work as a carpenter.

That's when Thea unintentionally started her business. She was gutting fish on her porch when a man arrived in a rowboat. He wanted to sell it for ten dollars. Being prudent, she talked him down to five.

She rented out the rowboat, netting forty dollars before her husband returned with thirty-two dollars he'd earned from his carpentry work. Thus, her business was born.

She rented, bought, and sold boats. The whole family joined the endeavor. Andrew became a shipbuilder with other relatives from the homeland. Her sons cleaned boats and re-sold bait left in the bottoms. They used telescopes to watch for ships in distress and came to their rescue (for a small fee). They also ran a ship-to-shore delivery service.

Her daughter helped in the kitchen, where Thea was “always ready with a friendly cup of coffee.” Her hospitality connected her to all the people in the harbor. As she understood their needs, she found ways to provide, growing her enterprise.

The boys attended college, each learning to serve the business in a different capacity.

When Thea passed in 1927, her funeral procession was the largest ever seen in Tacoma. The Thea Foss Waterway on Tacoma's Commencement Bay commemorates her legacy.

The movie Tugboat Annie, released in 1933, was loosely based on her life. However, the boisterous main character was very different from the real Thea, who was soft-spoken and reserved. In fact, she has been misrepresented in several movie and television endeavors.

The company was eventually sold by the family but still carries the Foss name and history.

She never intended to start an empire. But being "Always Ready" to meet people's needs allowed her to do just that. Thea Foss is a fine example for the modern woman.

***

 " Mending Sarah's Heart" in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

Mending Sarah's Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn't need anyone, especially her dead husband's partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband's share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

 

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, "A Song for Rose" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and "Mending Sarah's Heart" in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.

 

The History of Packaging and Shipping

I love antique wooden boxes and crates. I’m not sure why they have such a fascination for me. Once, I had a lovely old box that we used as a prop in a Christmas play at church. I loaded everything on my husband’s truck to take back home after the play, and he headed toward my mother-in-law’s house to deliver borrowed props to her first. I was watching from the church parking lot when my crate fell off the truck and shattered in the middle of the highway. It was a total accident, but I was sad to lose the old box.

Vintage Armour Canned meat crate found in my husband's grandfather's old barn.
It's now on display in my den.

But even through my fascination, I can see why manufacturers, shippers, and merchants would prefer the lighter, more easily handled and recyclable cardboard boxes we have today. And, after you watch the video at the end of this post, you’ll realize that we’ve come a long way from gourds, leaves, and hollowed out logs!

The cardboard box was invented in 1817 in England. The box was a flimsy paperboard similar in design to today’s cereal boxes. Kellogg Cereals started using this type of box in the mid-1800s and popularized its use. This type of box would never do for shipping heavy cans or jars.

Enter the corrugated box. Corrugated (or pleated) paper was patented in England in 1856 and used as a liner for tall hats, but entrepreneurs soon realized the benefits of the stronger material for other uses. Single-sided corrugated boxboard was patented by Albert Jones of New York City and saw use as a shipping material as early as 1871.

Corrugated means “(of a material, surface, or structure) shaped into alternate ridges and grooves.” The ridges and grooves strengthen the box. There are three basic types of corrugated cardboard boxes/crates. Single, double, triple walled.

As a former purchasing manager, I can tell you that all corrugated boxes aren’t the same. More than once, my shipping department rejected boxes because they were inferior quality that wouldn’t hold up to the rigors of shipping. Or we received product in flimsy boxes. Both scenarios cause a major headaches. Most shipments up to 20 lbs or so can get by with a single walled corrugated box. Triple walled corrugated boxes can handle up to 300 lbs and are quite sturdy.

I realize that it costs less to produce and ship corrugated cardboard boxes all over the world, and that cardboard is easier to recycle, but that still doesn’t stop me from longing for the days when some little mercantile in the middle of nowhere received a shipment of wooden crates with all kinds of goodies inside. Although I seriously doubt those merchants were as enamored of all those adorable wooden crates as I am.

Here’s a fun little video regarding the history of packaging.

 

CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com

Looking for another Pam Hillman novel to keep you entertained? Here are some of the best deals going right now! :)

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Travel and shipping on the Great Lakes

For longer than people have been recording Great Lakes history, men, women and children have paddled, sailed, steamed, and motored over Lake Erie, Lake

Great Lakes Art

Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior.

Chippewa, Cree, Mesquakie/Fox, Huron, Iroquois, Menominee, Ottawa, Potawatomi and Dakota/Sioux were some of the Native American Indians who lived in the Great Lakes regions. These Indian nations used canoes to fish, travel and migrate from one area to another. The Lakes were a source of livelihood to ancient indigenous tribes.

Though highly disputed, evidence that Norsemen longboats traveled and possibly camped along the shores of the Great Lakes was “discovered” in the 1930’s. The Beardmore Relics are Viking Age artifacts, supposedly found near Beardmore, Ontario, Canada. 

The Beardmore Relics

The objects consist of an ax head, a Viking Age sword, and a bar that could have been part of a Viking shield. While the legitimacy of the fragments is not usually argued, the "discovery" is commonly considered to be a hoax. Did Viking longboats travel around the Great Lakes? That’s yet to be proven, but hey, Vikings were explorers and conquerors, so why wouldn’t they?

By the early Seventeenth Century, European explorers were traveling on Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior in canoes and boats powered by sails

Lake Huron

or paddles. We know French explorers were more aggressive in their pursuit to map and explore the shoreline due in part to cartography. A British map published in 1626 showed no sign of the Great Lakes existence, and though more accurate maps were available in 1701, at least one British map issued was drawn showing with a single large lake at the end of the St. Lawrence River. In comparison, as early as 1650, the Frenchman Nicolas Sanson d'Abbeville had documented all five Great Lakes. Though not accurate, especially Lakes Erie, Ontario, and Superior, all of the Great Lakes were accounted for.

During the late 1700’s and all through the 1800’s, as more Americans moved west, shipping on the Great Lakes became increasingly important to the growth of our new nation’s economy. During this time barges, sloops, brigantines, schooners, and clippers traversed the freshwater of the Great Lakes. After the War of 1812, schooners were the chief vessels on the Lakes. Most of the merchant ships between 1800 and 1830 were 100 tons register, approximately 70 foot long, two-masted schooners. These ships could carry about 150 tons or 1,500 barrels of cargo. A crew of three or four men could run the schooner. Brigantines became popular in the 1830's and 1840's. Crews of eight to ten

Schooner

people were required, and the ships were not as maneuverable as schooners. After 1850 few brigs or brigantines were built mostly because they were too expensive. The most useful and lucrative rig was the topsail schooner, intended for quick trips with heavy cargo the ship had excellent maneuverability and required a limited crew.

Today, shipping on the Great Lakes is still going strong. We visited Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this summer and saw two massive freighters in the few hours we were there. Alpena, Michigan has recently expanded a cruise ship line that travels the Great Lakes. Everyday, pleasure boats and fishing vessels travel the lake shores and beyond.

The Great Lakes’ long history of shipping doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

________________________________________________________________

Award winning author, Michele Morris’s love for historical fiction began when she first read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House book series. She grew up riding horses and spending her free time in the woods of mid-Michigan dreaming of days-gone-by and knights-in-shining-armor. Therefore, it only makes sense that she now writes historical romance with a touch of suspense. Married to her high school sweetheart, they are living happily-ever-after with their six children, three in-loves, and six grandchildren in Florida, the sunshine state. When not spending time with her large brood or writing, Michele enjoys photography, genealogy, and cooking. 

Shipping or Rail: How Small Towns Got Their Goods

Shipping has been one of the most important means of transportation throughout history. Even as far back as ancient times, shipping was used to transport both goods and people, and entire cities developed because of natural harbors and trade routes. Things were much the same when Europeans first settled the United States. Boston and New York both became great cities because they had natural harbors where ships could dock and shelter.

While this might not surprise you about big cities, did you know the same is true of small towns? Whether located on rivers or natural harbors, many towns in the United States and across the globe came into existence do to geography.

This is particularly true of towns along the Great Lakes. A lot of effort and attention was put into laying a railroad that would span from the East Coast to the West Coast after the Civil War. But no such effort was put into connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. 

Eagle Harbor, Michigan, the town I'm featuring in my new Eagle Harbor Series, was accessible mainly by water. It had a pier where large ships could dock and received all of its imports and exports exclusively through shipping. The railroad didn't come to Eagle Harbor until 1907, and numerous towns similar to Eagle Harbor exist in other places along the Great Lakes. 

Rail was essential for towns that weren't on a river, Great Lake, or ocean. If a town didn't have a port and didn't have a train depot, then sending and receiving goods could be done only through horses and wagons, which severely limited the amount of imports and exports from an area.

Oftentimes short, local railroad lines were laid from coastal towns to villages farther inland. In that respect, many towns relied on a combination of both shipping and rail to get their supplies. Such is true of the old Delaware Mine and Central Mine in Michigan's Copper Country. A local train track ran the five miles from Eagle Harbor's port to the crowded mining town of Central, where over 1,000 people depended on the supplies being shipped to them.

In my newest Eagle Harbor novel, Love's Sure Dawn, I deal with the important role shipping played for towns that would otherwise be completely isolated. My hero is the son of a shipping company owner, and my heroine spends time working as a cook on one of the ships that runs from Eagle Harbor to Chicago. Oftentimes in novels, characters walk into a general store and find fabric, boots, saddles, and the like. It was fun to include a little bit about how all those boots and bolts of fabric got to be in the general store in the first place.

~.~.~.~.~

No matter how hard she tries to help, Rebekah Cummings always ends up causing more problems than she solves. This time, though, things will be different. She'll find a way to pay her family's debts, even if doing so requires leaving Eagle Harbor. Maybe then they'll start treating her as a capable woman who makes her own choices.

Gilbert Sinclair is going to marry an heiress. With his latest business venture sunk at the bottom of Lake Superior, he needs money to replace the steamship he lost, so he heads to Chicago where his father's business connections should land him a suitable wife. Like most things in his meticulously planned life, everything goes as expected—until he discovers Rebekah Cummings working as the new cook on his ship.

Rebekah well remembers the pain she endured the last time she tried trusting Gilbert, and Gilbert can't afford to pursue the love of a working class woman. But they can't stop the forgotten feelings swirling between them--or ignore the sacrifices they'd both have to make for a future together.

Learn more about Naomi and her books at www.naomirawlings.com.

An Old-Time Hero: Joshua James

by Naomi Rawlings

"You have to go out. You don’t have to come back."

Two years ago I did a series of posts about the Unite States Life-Saving Service. (If you want to brush up on what exactly the Life-Saving Service was and how they went about rescuing people from wrecked ships, here's a link to some of my old posts). 

"You have to go out. You don’t have to come back." This was the unofficial motto of the U.S Life-Saving Service, a precursor to the United States Coast Guard. Back before helicopters and radar and power boats, life-saving teams braved stormy waters with little more than rowboats, storm suits, and life rings.

Out of the hundreds of men that risked their lives for the life-saving service, one man stands out as

the most decorated and most well known. His name is Joshua James, and he lived in Massachusetts. At the age of ten, James watched his mother and baby sister die when the ship they were sailing on got caught in a storm and wrecked a half mile from the harbor.

When he was fifteen, James joined a group of volunteers from the local humane society was the launched a surfboat to go rescue passengers from a floundering ship named Mohawk. That was Jame's first life-saving rescue, but he went on to spend the next sixty years of his life rescuing sailors. First, he worked as a volunteer life-saver for the Massachusetts Humane Society, and then he worked as a station keeper for the U.S. Life-Saving Service. He's credited with saving over 200 lives, and was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal from the life-saving service as well as several other medals from the Massachusetts Humane Society. 

James died at the age of 75, after returning from running a life-saving drill in stormy weather. He apparently paddled for over an hour with the other men of his crew while they tested a new surfboat. Upon returning to the beach, he died of a heart attack.

I modeled the hero in my newest Eagle Harbor novel after Joshua James. My fictional Elijah Cummings grew up in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior. He spent two years sailing the Atlantic Ocean and saw life-saving teams in action. After his father drowns in a storm, Elijah returns to Eagle Harbor. Unable to sit by and watch when ships flounder coming into port, he starts a volunteer life-saving team. But the icy conditions and strong storms prove difficult for his volunteers and secondhand equipment. He soon finds himself fighting for the U.S. Life-Saving Service to establish a legitimate station—as well as fighting for the woman he’s loved for fifteen years.

Giveaway: Answer one of the questions below to be eligible for a paperback copy of either Love's Unfading Light or Love's Every Whisper. Winner's choice.

Question: Do you enjoy novels where the characters have unusual jobs and hobbies? Do you personally know anyone with a dangerous job that puts their life at risk? How do family members respond when a person they love has a risky job?

*****

Love's Every Whisper

Victoria Donnelly simply wants to do something right, at least once in her lifetime. With five years of failed courtships behind her and the calendar inching closer to another birthday, she's determined to redeem herself and snag a proposal from a wealthy childhood acquaintance, Gilbert Sinclair. But returning to Eagle Harbor stirs up long forgotten memories. And worse, old affection for her betrothed's enemy. 

Elijah Cummings has loved Victoria for fifteen years. But fishermen's sons don't marry shipping barons' daughters. He knows it. She knows it. The entire town knows it. Resolved to keep his distance from Victoria, Elijah focuses on establishing a much needed life-saving station, risking his own life by rescuing sailors stuck aboard shipwrecks. 

He knows how to save drowning sailors, but how is he to save a woman from the biggest mistake of her life—without destroying both their hearts in the process? 

Purchase Love's Every Whisper for $3.99

Purchase Love's Unfading Light (Eagle Harbor Book 1) on sale for $0.99 through 10/2

Historical Towns: Welcome to Eagle Harbor, Michigan

by Naomi Rawlings

Do you enjoy visiting small towns? What about towns tucked away and hidden in an obscure place most people wouldn't notice? Some of my favorite towns to visit are the small, out-of-the-way, historical ones. I always find myself asking questions like, "Why was this town established?" "What caused people to settle here?" And if it's something of a ghost town, I then wonder, "Why did people move away?"

Most of the time these questions pop into my mind as I'm driving through somewhere, and I don't really think about them again. But a writer's brain can be a bit of a scary place, and sometimes I find my imagination running away from me. That's how I ended up with the Eagle Harbor Series.

Eagle Harbor, Michigan is located on the northernmost tip of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. It sticks up into the wild, cold, and often-dangerous waters of Lake Superior, which in turn makes it prone to violent storms. Driving through the town today will only take you a handful of minutes. You'll pass several blocks of houses, a restaurant, hotel, and active lighthouse before proceeding up the Lake Superior coast to the next small town.

Russel Harrison Photography

While it's a beautiful place to live, there's absolutely nothing around it. So when I visited the town for the first time (probably about 5 years ago now), I found myself asking what prompted people to live there? Why would a town form way up north in the middle of nowhere on a forgotten stretch of shoreline?

The answer is the shipping industry. With all the trucks, railroads, and cargo planes we're surrounded with today, it's easy to forget that transporting freight used to be done solely by ships, and then by a combination of ships and rail. For a town like Eagle Harbor, which gets over 200 inches of snow per winter, running a rail line all the way up to the norther tip of the continental U.S. wasn't very practical, nor was keeping the rail clear of snow in the winter.

However, the richest copper deposit in the United States runs just a few miles inland from Eagle Harbor. With it's natural bay that offers protection from Lake Superior, Eagle Harbor developed into a busy but small shipping town in the 1840s. The town saw a lot of people move through it's port, but most of them didn't stay. They were headed inland to work the mines. As the copper mines along the Keweenaw Fault continued to produce and the mining towns grew bigger, there was more and more copper to ship out if this isolated area, as well as a growing demand for food and supplies to be shipped in to the mining towns. Several natural harbors along the Keweenaw Peninsula soon grew into small but busy shipping towns, one of which was Eagle Harbor.

When I started writing the Eagle Harbor Series, I was captivated by how isolated the town was, especially since the shipping season only ran for six months. During the winter, ice and other weather conditions made shipping on Lake Superior impossible. (Actually, Lake Superior is still closed to shipping today for two to three months every winter because of how dangerous the lake is.)

So I endeavored to write about a town where everyone knows everyone else, where the mistakes you made 10 or 20 years ago are never quite forgotten, but neither are the good deeds you do. And of course, with the importance of shipping, I simply had to make the first book in the series about the very real, very historic Eagle Harbor Lighthouse and a lightkeeper. It's been a fun series for me because of the little parts of history I've gotten to bring to life. I hope some of you will enjoy reading about it.

What about you? Do you enjoy visiting historical small towns? Do you enjoy novels based on real places that you can visit today? Or do you prefer a completely fictional setting?

~.~.~.~.~

Tressa Danell is finished with men—from the wastrel who left her a widow, to the smelly trapper who keeps proposing, to the banker who wants to repossess her bakery. Every hour is spent working to payoff her late husband’s debt and keep a roof over her son’s head, though it’s doubtful she can do both for very long. But one thing’s certain—she’ll never be beholden to a man again. 

Tired of living in a small town that blames him for actions his father committed ten years ago, Mac Oakton is scheduled to leave Eagle Harbor. So why does the pretty widow at the bakery keep tugging at his heart? He can’t get involved in her predicament when he’ll only be around for two more weeks. 

But when Tressa’s burdens overwhelm her, they both face a decision. Can Mac set his own plans aside to help? And can Tressa accept his support if that means giving up her independence ... and being obligated to a man again?

View Love's Unfading Light on Amazon. For more information about Naomi Rawlings and her Eagle Harbor Series, visit www.naomirawlings.com.

The Oldest Settlement in the Midwest

By Naomi Rawlings

Whether it was settled 100 years ago or 1000, every town has its own, unique history. But in the United States, only a handful of towns can claim to be 350 years old. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (pronounced soo saint marie) is one of those places. Settled only 40 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, it became an important fur-trading settlement.

Why trade fur at Sault Ste. Marie, of all places? Because Sault Ste. Marie is located at the rapids of the Saint Mary's River, effectively connecting Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The rapids fall 21 feet from Lake Superior to the lower Lake Huron and necessitate a portage to cross. This afforded a natural gathering place for Native Americans to trade furs collected along the shores of Lake Superior, and the rapids also provided an abundance of fish.

The Native Americans established a village there possibly as long as 2,000 years ago. The first Europeans traveled to Sault Ste. Marie in 1668. This was Father Jaques Marquette, a Jesuit priest who would go on to become the first explorer of the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries. Father Marquette had heard of the Native American village went there to found a Catholic mission.

Sault Ste. Marie grew in prominence as more and more trappers and fur traders flooded the northern Great Lakes. Sitting right on the border between Canada and the United States, it was often fought over between French and British trappers until the area was finally ceded to the United States in the early 1800s.

Shipping remained an important part of the local economy as natural resources were harvested from the wilds of Lake Superior and shipped to more populated areas. In 1855, the first lock in America was built so that ships no longer needed to portage the rapids.

Today, the city of Sault Ste. Marie still exists. There are four locks, operated by the Army Corps of Engineers, and they are the busiest locks in the world, transferring more freight each year than the Panama and Suez Canals combined.

Have any of you ever heard of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan before? Are you surprised to learn that this little northern city has been around for 350 years? Were you aware that the locks connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron are the busiest in the world?

*****

A mother of two young boys, Naomi Rawlings spends her days picking up, cleaning, playing and, of course, writing. Her husband pastors a small church in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where her family shares its ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and bald eagles. Naomi and her family live only three miles from Lake Superior, where the scenery is beautiful and they average 200 inches of snow per winter. She is looking forward to the release of her fourth novel, Falling for the Enemy, in January 2015. For more information about Naomi, please visit her website at www.NaomiRawlings.com.