Self Unloader AMERICAN CENTURY

Believe It or Don't!! Some would rather  fish the St. Mary's River at Sault Ste. Marie than snap photos of super large ships transiting the Soo Locks. Are you out of your @#$%^&* minds? Sorry for the foul outburst there, or NOT! Actually, you don't have to be 'loonie' to spend your off time fly-casting the day away because apparently the 'rapids of the St. Mary's' (a.k.a: Sault Ste. Marie), are loaded with rainbow trout, whitefish, pink & coho salmon, steelhead, brown trout, and on some days you may even reel in a walleye, small-mouth bass or lake trout as the frigid waters of Lake Superior drops the twenty or so feet making its way towards the lower Great Lakes and/or your filled to the brim hip-waders. YIKES!! c):-()
Or you may consider slowly trawling along near one of the hydro dams located on either side of the river like the two anglers above were doing in their aluminum skiff a few weeks ago as I snapped the big AMERICAN CENTURY slowly making her way downbound from the equally large, Poe Lock.

When launched in 1980 at the Bay Shipbuilding yards in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, this 1000'x105' monster self unloader was named COLUMBIA STAR and was owned by the Oglebay Norton Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. She can carry up 78,850 tons of cargo which may consist coal or talconite pellets and with her 260' boom, she can cast out her load at a rate of 10,000 tons per hour. In 2006 the STAR was sold to American Steamship Co. of Williamsville, New York and her name was changed to AMERICAN CENTURY. Just like fishing, snapping a big one like the CENTURY requires an abundance of patience and an understanding that some may get away to be caught another day. After being released from the lock, the AMERICAN CENTURY slowly but surely passed by the articulated tug and barge, JOYCE L. VANENKEVORT and GREAT LAKES TRADER, then motored past Cloverland Electric Power generation building towards a downstream destination. 

Hey, if you're bored stiff one day with nothing to do, you can always check out the Lake Superior State University Fish Cam which is located at the eastern outport of the hydro dam at http://www.lssu.edu/arl/fishcam.php , or NOT!! c);-b