It’s hard not to think about Sault Ste Marie without thinking about the Soo Locks. In this episode, Captain Scott Labonte, general manager for Famous Soo Lock Boat Tours, takes us behind the scenes of what it takes to run this great company. Also how they delight tens of thousands of passengers every single year.
Links from the Show:
Famous Soo Lock Boat Tours Website: https://famoussoolocks.com
Facebook Page: https://facebook.com/famoussoolocks
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Transcript
And something that Famous takes a lot of pride in is making sure that every guest is as comfortable as possible. And that means every sense, having comfortable seats. and we strive for that. as a company and our maintenance program is fairly stringent where, if something isn't just right, we're not gonna send that boat out, to make sure that we get it right.
Cliff Duvernois:Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan, where we interview ordinary people who are doing some pretty extraordinary things in our Michigan community. I have been actually very fortunate to go, north of the bridge, into the upper peninsula and spend some time in Sault Ste marie getting to meet some really fascinating people that are up here in the area. And of course, you can't think about Sault Ste Marie without thinking about the Soo Locks. And who better to talk to us about the Soo Locks than to talk to an actual captain, the person who has probably taken millions of us through the Soo locks back and forth to really experience what it's like to see this marvel of engineering, so to speak. So with that being said, today we're talking to the general manager of the Soo Lock Boats tours, and that would be Captain. Scott Labonte. Scott, how are you?
Scott Labonte:Wonderful. and on a day like today, who
Cliff Duvernois:couldn't be? I tell you, if you're watching this right now on YouTube, you are in for a treat because the weather today is just gorgeous. You couldn't ask for a better day.
Scott Labonte:you really couldn't. we're in, uh, the northern paradise right now, I believe.
Cliff Duvernois:And that would be the term I would use. Yes, definitely. So before we jump into the interview, Scott, because I actually have over the past few days become aware that some people aren't really familiar with the Soo Locks. So before we jump into the interview, why don't you tell us about the Soo Locks in general?
Scott Labonte:Well, the Soo Locks are, a fixture of both, commerce and history here in Michigan, specifically the UP. They've been around since the late 18 hundreds, and they've provided a portage between the upper Ste mary's falls in the lower Ste mary's falls, where there's a 21 foot difference in elevation. Prior to the locks being built, boats would have to be pulled out of the water. And basically rolled on logs down ported, what we call now Portage Street. Oh my. And placed back into the water. So for what now takes say 15 to 20 minutes used to take three weeks or a month or even longer to accomplish.
Cliff Duvernois:So for the Soo Locks, then a boat goes into a manmade channel. Correct. Okay. And then talk to us what happens from there?
Scott Labonte:Once the boat is in the channel, we get more to one side or the other depending on, on, what the locks crew deems necessary. And it might be more than one boat. We've fit, a small freighter. When I say small, about 600, 650 feet. We've been in the lock itself with a small freighter as well as ma may, maybe two or three other tour boats. And a few private boats. So they'll try and fill the lock as much as possible. Anyway, as soon as they get the lock, as full as they want it to be, with the vessels in the area, they will close the the gates behind us. And those gates close in a dovetail fashion, meaning they close inward to keep the water pressure out of course. Once that is concluded, they will put some safety gates down or safety, standards or however you wanna put it, and these safety gates lower with a large cable underneath them. And these cables, it's like an arresting cable to keep boats from crashing into the gate walls. Okay, so at this point, the boats are inside, the doors are closed. the safety rails or safety gates are down. Now at this point, one of the engineers will then open some valves. And these valves will allow water to enter the lock from the lake, superior or high side. And merely just using gravity, the water will enter the lock and fill it or let water out to the level that we're trying to achieve.
Cliff Duvernois:Depending on if you're coming in or out.
Scott Labonte:Correct. Yeah. we like to say Upbound or down bound. So if we're heading east from the upside, we'd be down bound and just the opposite for the other way.
Cliff Duvernois:Certainly. And then, so the, these gravity fed pumps would either fill up, or like you said, take down, but let's keep it simple. Mm-hmm. Fill up. Correct. And then once it's full, what happens from there?
Scott Labonte:Once it's full, it's really the same process in reverse, the, the. The safety gates will open, or the safety cables will raise up out of the way. The gates themselves, the big doors will then open and, will become detached. And we'll let our mooring line lines go and then we're free to go.
Cliff Duvernois:Thank you for that. So let's talk about you. Okay. So tell us a little bit about where you're from and where you
Scott Labonte:grew up. I grew up on the on the western end of the upper peninsula in the Keewanau area, I was born and raised in Calumet, Michigan, where I lived, up to the age of 18. At which time, I decided that firefighting was my chosen profession. I attended Lake State along with my now wife, Jennifer, and we both went to Lake State for four years. In that amount of time I received a bachelor's degree in fire science as well as a minor in paramedicine and law enforcement. From there I was hired before I graduated with the city of Sault Ste marie Fire Department, where I've worked for about 22 years, with the last six years being the fire chief for the city of Sault Ste marie. there was a time when Covid wasn't so fun, and I hate using the C word that way. Yeah. it just wasn't a fun time. There was a lot of, a lot of stress and whatnot, and like many other people my age or even younger or older decided that I needed to change. And I am very lucky and count my stars every day. My lucky stars that, in knowing, both the Brawley family as well as this business to a degree that I did, I was able to reach out and say, Hey, I'm available for work. Do you have anything for me? And right away they. the board as well as the Brawley family said, yeah, we are actually looking for a general manager to take over for the current general manager at the time, which is Rich Brawley, who was also the corporation's president. And, so this past March 31st, I took over for Rich as general manager for Famous Soo Lock Tours Incorporated.
Cliff Duvernois:Okay, Your title is General manager, correct. But you're also a captain? I am. Okay. So I wanna explore that. Okay. Because you just don't take a quiz online or watch a YouTube video and say, oh, that's how you captain a boat. I'm a captain. No. You are a licensed captain. Correct. And from what you were sharing with me before we hit the record button, you've actually been on the water all your life. So talk to us about that.
Scott Labonte:I started at a very young age, working with my grandfather. I was very fortunate to have a grandfather who also liked the water and so did my parents. But my grandfather was just an avid user. He was around it his whole life as well. in not only in assisting him with his, vessels and whatnot, and fishing trips and doing all sort of that, that, that sort of thing. But also, with the Coast Guard auxiliary. And assisting with the Coast Guard in the Houghton or Portage area with their operations. It helped me out a lot. Not only did I get to learn a lot mechanically, but also navigationally in, in operating vessels. Starting at the age of 16, you can just start accumulating hours as well. As long as they're documented, you can start accumulating hours towards your license.
Cliff Duvernois:Which is something your grandfather did.
Scott Labonte:He absolutely did. And again, I'm lucky that between my, my, now past grandfather and grandmother, they kept very, good documentation of all of the hours that I spent, both with the Coast Guard and on their boats.
Cliff Duvernois:Talk about the gift that keeps on giving. Absolutely. Now, I have heard that getting your captain's license on the Great Lakes is actually a really badge of honor, cuz a lot of people don't know this before. But navigating the Great Lakes is extremely tricky and there's lots of difference in, depth that's underneath the water. You gotta know exactly where you can place your boat, where you can't. Talk to us about the process of getting your license.
Scott Labonte:The process itself requires not only the hours that you put in beforehand. I've got hundreds if not thousands of hours of experience beforehand. But also going through, an accredited educational program. And mine was through, was through a company called Just Great Lakes out of, I think it was Battle Creek, Michigan. And I spent, a little over a week at. I want to say 10 to 12 hours a day. And, basically going through a crash course, educationally anyway, which culminated into multiple written exams, all of which you had to pass with a great degree in order to finally get the license. The exams were difficult. But not only that, once you're done with that, then the application process to the Coast Guard is a whole new ball of wax. It's a whole nother thing.
Cliff Duvernois:So you gotta get certified with the Coast Guard as well?
Scott Labonte:Yes. Yeah. Oh, wow. Once you go through this program, then you have to go through a complete vetting with the Coast Guard drug tests, all sorts of things. And it, the pro, that process can take three or four months to get through.
Cliff Duvernois:Now, just to keep in mind for our audience too, we're talking about your Captain's license for commercial.
Scott Labonte:True. Yeah. Yes, we are. And for what it's worth, there are many, I call them grades or levels to a captain's license, which all begins with what they call, what the Coast Guard calls a six pack. Meaning you can have as many as six people in your boat and charge money for whatever service you're providing on the water. From the six pack license, then you go to a 25 ton license and then there's a 50 ton license, then a hundred ton license, which is what I have. And then from there, 200 ton, 500 ton, thousand ton, unlimited. And even in there's some extra grades because you want to be able to take as many passengers as you can, which then requires a master's captain license. Which is something I achieved through this program as well, which will allow me on our particular boats to take up to 150 passengers at any given time and apply for more if we need them.
Cliff Duvernois:So just to get, a little bit of an idea, you said you're certified up to as a hundred tons? yes. A hundred tons. A hundred tons. Correct. Give us an idea as to how long of a boat that is. Is that like a 50 foot boat? Is a hundred foot boat?
Scott Labonte:it goes, it's not necessarily boat weight. It's in, in the amount of displacement, oh, okay. I guess if we were talking a steel boat, the boats that I drive just about every day are about 70 tons, and they're 70 feet long. And there's no correlation between tonnage and length, right? Because again, it goes, there's fiberglass boats, there's steel boats and whatnot. The largest boat that I could drive in theory, would be about 90 feet on at average.
Cliff Duvernois:When you get your captain's license, you've been made general manager of this place and your qualifications move across the board. cuz you, you were the fire chief for six years, so managing people and stuff like that. So you've got all those skills in place. Now the question I got for you is I. What was some of, what was some of the challenges you had to go through leaving the fire department versus now coming into something first off, that's primarily tourism.
Scott Labonte:That's a great question because being a part of a fire department is like having another family. And granted I was the fire chief, but I had a lot of brothers. And sisters there, that you're fighting side by side with that fighting. I'm, I am putting my life in their hands and vice versa. So it's not that I necessarily divorced myself from that family, but it was tough moving to another family, which I have now, which I still keep in contact with all the guys downtown and, and whatnot and, it was, it's a different a different ball wax. Granted, yes, there's employees, there's that sort of thing, but really I think it was, how should I put this? Maybe looking at comradery a different way. Okay. Not necessarily unhealthy or bad, just different.
Cliff Duvernois:Sure. For our audience, we're gonna take a quick break to thank our sponsors. When we come back, we're gonna talk more about what the Soo Lock Boat tours has to offer and how you can take full advantage of it. We'll see you after the break. Are you enjoying these amazing stories? Michigan is full of people doing some pretty extraordinary things. If you want these amazing stories sent directly to your inbox, head over to total michigan.com/join. What are you gonna get? I'm glad you asked. First, you're gonna join our awesome Michigan community. And second, you'll get an email with the top five interviews from the show sent directly to your inbox. This is going to include not only the powerful lessons that we've learned, but the amazing stories that these people have to share. Third, you'll get exclusive behind the scenes information about the show. There's a lot of things that are happening to grow this movement beyond the confines of just a radio show and a podcaSte to get these goodies, head over to total michigan.com/join. Enter your email and join our awesome community. Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan. I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois. Today we're talking all things Soo Locks and the Soo Lock Boat Tour Company, and no better person to do this than the general manager and Captain Scott Labonte. I'm gonna start calling you Captain throughout this
Scott Labonte:interview. Okay? All right, that's fine.
Cliff Duvernois:Okay, captain. Talk to us about the Soo Locks Boat Tour company. When did it get started? Why did it get started?
Scott Labonte:The Famous Soo Lock boat tour started around 1959. It's been going with the same vessels ever since. We have both the Nokomis as well as the Le Voyager, where, which were both built in Wisconsin at around the 1959 mark. And like I mentioned, have been serving us ever since. Ever since, history goes back and speaking to our prior general manager, we've offered, our normal lock tour, which lasts about 90 minutes to two hours. And typically we'll go through both an American lock as well as the Canadian lock. On top of that we've always also offered a, tour of the lighthouses in the immediate area, which that's about a four to four and a half hour tour. And it showcases some of the lighthouse to our west or in the Brimley area. And then comes back, again through the lock. So that tour is a little, I don't want to say exclusive, but a little neat cuz not only do you get a taste of the locks, but you also get to see some really neat, features as far as light lighthouses go.
Cliff Duvernois:So they're still around. So let's go back and unpack a couple things here. First off, talk to us about the general tour. if somebody was coming here and they're like, I wanna take this tour of the school, the su I almost said school su locks. What is it that, what is it that they can expect?
Scott Labonte:Well, what they can expect is a, a comfortable ride, on one of our two boats. And, with options, I don't know if you wanna get into this right now, but, we do have, basically a restaurant right on site as well as a full line gift shop so they can, hang out in our lobby and grab a wonderful lunch at Sugar Daddy Bakery and cafe or pick up some gifts in our gift shop,
Cliff Duvernois:By the way, for our audience is really cool. Make sure you check that out.
Scott Labonte:So that's where they can spend their time waiting. If there is a wait, but generally like people to, to show up about 10 or 15 minutes before a voyage goes out. Other than that, they can sit on our grounds anywhere and enjoy the scenery, enjoy the things as people are doing here now. Once the boat is ready to take off, we give a boarding call. and we'll board the boat at that point in time. Takes about 10 to 15 minutes tops. And once we're boarded and ready to go, the captain will sound the horn to release the stern line. And off you go. the tour itself is about 10 full miles. Again, they're spending about five miles in the upper river and five miles on the lower river, depending on the day and the traffic in the area, cuz Soo Harbor is fairly busy. The captain might, choose to go through the Canadian lock first versus the American Lock first. So they are, they're playing a little bit of chess with trying to keep the tour on time. But once that choice is made, then they'll head to the lock of choice. And they'll call the lock master and get permission to come in. And that usually is a pretty fast process. They'll go through the lock, and then, Yeah, either way they go, they'll wind up, up in the Algoma area or Algoma Steel and take a look around in that area and in the narrator gives awesome, just an amazing amount of information of, as far as what's going on up in the Algoma area. And as they come around, they'll see the opposite side with us, Canadian or American and come back through a lock and then they'll do a tour of the lower river. Both on the Canadian side as well as the American side. going as far as the, the Canadian Bush Plane Museum, which is a museum that showcases old Canadian, fire planes. Do that over there. Then they'll come over to this side. You take a look at LSSU CFRE Center from the water, as well as a few other attractions, including the Ojibwe, which is a supply boat in the area and supplies freighters. As you may see behind us shortly, I was just thinking that's perfect. Timing, timing passes, timing, perfect timing. so the Ojibwe is a, will come alongside a boat and whatever they may have ordered, whether that's groceries or maybe a new washing machine or dryer, they'll offload from their boat onto the freighter, whatever supplies that are needed. so that, that takes place not three quarters of the, of a mile down from the end of our dock. And then typically we'll finish up with the Soo hydroelectric plant that's been in operation since the early 19 hundreds, giving a lot of information on that and then we'll come back to our dock.
Cliff Duvernois:So one of the, one of the questions I had, cuz you mentioned before, and if you're watching this on the YouTube channel, you just saw this big freighter like, go by us. So it's kinda like you said, it's like a little bit of a game of chess, right? Figuring out, where's the traffic, who's going through the locks right now, et cetera. One of the things when I was taking my Soo lock tour coming through was one of the freighters coming out was, I think they said 1,004 feet or something like that. One question I got for you is how vital is the locks to just the economy in general? Cause I know there's a lot of goods in here. I don't know if numbers off the top of your head, but just like, how vital is it? How much do you know? Like how much money is coming through here as far as products, goods delivered?
Scott Labonte:That's a great question, Cliff. As far as the amount of money, I think that fluctuates quite a bit. I guess the best way to put that is that if at any given time our locks were not passable for whatever reason that may be, the entire US economy would be affected within as few as six months or maybe even sooner. The amount of commodity that goes through here between steel products, wheat, grains, that sort of thing, as, as well as many other things, that get that go through here. like I said, it would, I don't necessarily, I don't wanna use the word cripple, but our economy would be affected in short amount of time. Certainly. Certainly. Which is actually what's really driving the need for the new lock. Certainly.
Cliff Duvernois:Now, some of the things that I was paying attention to when I was going through my tour and yes, I was paying attention, cuz it was a fantastic tour, is that, first off, what really caught me by surprise is the fact that any boat can use the locks. And it doesn't cost them a dime. Not a dime. Just have to go through, talk to us about that.
Scott Labonte:Sure. I'd love to. And that always hasn't been true. Way back in the day, when the state of Michigan owned the only lock, they used to charge, and I believe it was 25 cents a ton. Oh my goodness. Through, oh, and when the federal government took over the locks via the core of engineers, that charge went away. Okay. And for what it's worth, neither the Canadian side or the American side charge per passage. So they're both ways are free.
Cliff Duvernois:And any boat, any kayak can go through the locks.
Scott Labonte:Great question. Anything that's unmotorized must go through the Canadian lock. Okay. the American lock due to their size, would make a rescue a little bit more difficult. So the American locks require a vessel to be I believe, over 12 feet or over and have a motor. Whereas the Canadian side, kayak, paddleboard, whatever you jet skis, whatever, can go through there.
Cliff Duvernois:Because as somebody who loves kayaking, I was really surprised when they made the comment like, yeah, kayakers go through the locks all the time. Oh, that is incredible. It is. So what I'd like to do is talk more about the boats. The one thing that really impressed me with the boats was the fact that it didn't even feel like a boat. it was like a smooth glide. There was no like roar of engines that was in the background. you, there's gonna be some noise on a boat. Sure. And I totally acknowledge that. But it wasn't overpowering. I could like, somebody's like standing 10 feet away from me and I could actually hear them talking. So talk to us about, the boats. how do you achieve that? how do you maintain it? Because these boats are 64 years old.
Scott Labonte:They are. And I have to say that this is something that's gone way back, obviously far before me in the maintenance program. And something that Famous takes a lot of pride in is making sure that every guest is as comfortable as possible. And that means every sense, having comfortable seats. Not having too loud engine noise or any of this. and we strive for that. as a company and our maintenance program is fairly stringent where, if something isn't just right, we're not gonna send that boat out, to make sure that we get it right. Everybody will get an equal fair chance to have a wonderful tour.
Cliff Duvernois:One of the things that I would like to explore a little bit is, let's say that I'm coming to the area. Maybe I'm new. Maybe I've never taken a boat tour before. I've got a family, maybe some little ones. What are some things that I should be thinking about if I'm gonna come over here and do a tour?
Scott Labonte:If you're gonna come over and go on a tour, dress for the weather. We, our lower cabin on each boat is climate controlled. So there is heat for the colder days. it's a little bit. Difficult, and I shouldn't say too difficult, if it's extremely warm out, you definitely, like I said, want to dress for the weather so you don't wanna be overdressed, I think is the best way to put it. In doing that, prepare the kids for being out for an hour and a half, maybe even in two hours, if the river is extremely busy. We have board games and coloring books and things aboard the boat for times when a child might not be all that interested. And bathrooms as well. And bathrooms as well. Each boat is, has bathrooms and they're all wheelchair access. our boats are wheelchair accessible. So we accommodate everybody that way as well. just being ready for an hour and a half ride and this isn't necessarily something that somebody can say, okay, I'm done. I'm getting off. You have to be prepared to be out there for an hour and a half, two hours max.
Cliff Duvernois:So let's talk a little bit about, cuz I, I know that primarily when people would think about the Famous Soo Lock Boat tours is, getting on the boat, taking a tour. Yeah. But you do other things. You have events on there, like special occasions, like talk like a pirate day, right? which still cracks me up, right? So talk first, talk to us about events.
Scott Labonte:I'm so proud of our events cuz it's something that's evolved over the last few years and I've really been happy to be a part of it. On top of our regular tours, our regular lock tours and our lighthouse tours, we also offer group tours. So on any given day, we might have a few tour buses come in and, they will have their own special opportunity to go out. We offer a French tour, once or twice a week where we actually have hired a, a bilingual person to give a whole entire french narration. And these are typically people coming over from Canada on a bus tour. But, a complete French narration for the whole lobster tour. I might have to check that out. That's pretty neat. in fact, your next guest, Paul, is our narrator for that event. So he can give you a piece of that. Okay. On top of that, like I mentioned, we, we have a lot of fun with talk, like a pirate day, either the captain or the narrator. I plan on being part of that this year and dress up in a pirate costume and having a lot of fun on that day. And we're also looking at something for Halloween, and although we're not open, the end of October, we, we are gonna be shutting down operations here on October 16th or 17th. We'll probably have something a little sooner, during our normal operation season where, we'll have kids get on board and dress up in costumes and take a bunch of pictures and just have a really fun time with it. Play, Halloween music and have a great time. Aside from that, we offer charters, private charters, and on these charters people are pretty much free to I have a charter for whatever reason they want. We've held weddings on boats. We've held memorial services on boats, employee appreciation cruises, customer appreciation cruises, any reason why somebody wants, just their people on a boat. On top of that, something we added last year is something we call a sip and sail. Ooh. Uh, and we have a full bar, actually. We have two bars on board. and typically music of some kind, whether it's provided by a DJ or live music, throughout the entire tour. And we'll either go upriver, downriver, and just sail and have a good time and relax and enjoy the music and the sites at the same time. And we'll be offering four of those this year, January. I'm sorry, July, August, September and October. One a month. Certainly typically the third Thursday of each month.
Cliff Duvernois:So when it comes to, because like we're talking about events, is there like events where it's if you wanted to have a midnight cruise, could you set that up as well? Is there certain hours that we have to play in?
Scott Labonte:We like to keep it, we like to return and it happens when we're returning in the dark. I'd like to say that we do our best to accommodate somebody the absolute best that we can. However, I will say that we prefer to get back around dusk just due to safety reasons, but we are, I. capable of entertaining in the dark.
Cliff Duvernois:And because you have a galley set up on the boat and stuff like that, you're able to accommodate food as well.
Scott Labonte:We can, if you, if our guests would like to order food, up at Sugar Daddy Baker Cafe in our ticket office. They're welcome to bring that food along with them. Whether it's sandwiches, hot dogs, sausages, whatever they offer there. But we also offer light snacks, on the boat as well as some alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, and seltzers, right? A right aboard the boat all the time.
Cliff Duvernois:Captain. If somebody's listening to this interview and, they wanna check out more about the Famous boat Locks, what you got going on, what's the best way for the, website, social media? What's the best way for them to find you?
Scott Labonte:Number one would be coming to our website. We have a awesome website and that would is located at, famous soo locks.com. F A M O U S S O O locks.com. It's because people pronounce or spell sue a little differently depending on where you're at, right? So Famous Soo Locks.com. Number two would be our Facebook page, which again is Famous Soo Locks. you search that, you'll find us. And the important thing there is adding the word Famous. that's the biggest descriptor there.
Cliff Duvernois:And, and, the que a clarifying question. So for the website, if somebody is thinking about coming here ahead of time, can they get tickets to your website or is it only through the office?
Scott Labonte:no, tickets are absolutely available online through our website. where they can go there or, if they would prefer to come into our office, they can buy tickets that way too, right here on site.
Cliff Duvernois:Wonderful. Captain. Thank you so much. You're welcome, Captain Scott and I need to say that Captain Scott, thank you so much for taking time to chat with us today. Really do appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you very much. And for our audience, you can always roll on over to total michigan.com. Click on Captain Scott's interview and you can see all the links that he mentioned above. We will see you next week with another great episode of another story of an ordinary Michigander doing some pretty extraordinary things. We'll see you then.
