In Sault Ste. Marie, where Lake Superior meets the lower Great Lakes, sits one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in North America: the Soo Locks. For tourists and locals alike, it’s a must-see destination where massive freighters rise and fall between water levels. But beyond the view, it’s also a critical link in the nation’s industrial system, helping keep manufacturing, energy and supply chains moving every day.
For LeighAnn Ryckeghem, Soo Operations Manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the facility is something truly unique. She described it as “the unicorn of infrastructure,” because there’s simply no substitute for what it does.
The Soo Locks are the only navigable route connecting Lake Superior to the rest of the Great Lakes. Each year, up to 10,000 vessels pass through, carrying more than 80 million tons of cargo. Even more striking, about 95 percent of the nation’s domestic iron ore moves through this single corridor—fueling steel production and supporting industries from automotive manufacturing to national defense.
Without the Soo Locks, that movement would stop. “This is critical infrastructure for the country,” Ryckeghem said. “There is no alternate route for the commerce that moves through here.”
That level of importance shows up in how the facility operates. During the navigation season, the locks run around the clock—24 hours a day, seven days a week. Keeping everything moving requires constant coordination, sharp timing and a strong understanding of both the systems and the people behind them.
As operations manager, Ryckeghem leads the teams that keep it all running. Her role goes well beyond the locks themselves, covering hydropower, maintenance crews and the broader industrial systems that support the facility. “I oversee the operators and maintainers and make sure they have what they need to do their jobs,” she said. “If something needs attention or resources, I step in to make sure we stay on track.”
The facility also plays a role in powering the region. In addition to supporting its own operations, the Soo Locks generate electricity that supplies about 20 percent of the eastern Upper Peninsula through a partnership with a local cooperative.
At the same time, the site is continuing to evolve. A major construction project is underway to build a new lock—an investment aimed at improving reliability and reducing risk in a system where downtime just isn’t an option.
Visitors can see that progress firsthand. The Soo Locks draw up to 500,000 people each year, offering a front-row seat to both the movement of massive ships and the ongoing work behind the scenes. Observation areas and exhibits help bring the scale and significance of the operation into focus.
The site also carries a deep sense of history. During World War II, the Soo Locks were a key route for materials that supported wartime manufacturing across the Great Lakes. Today, that legacy continues, even as the surrounding park serves as a community gathering place with events and activities throughout the year.
Ryckeghem’s path to leading operations here wasn’t a straight line. She earned a degree in civil engineering from Wayne State University and later a master’s in acquisition and contract management. After working in private industry and municipal government, she joined the Army Corps of Engineers and spent nearly a decade in Detroit before relocating to Sault Ste. Marie in 2017.
But her connection to the Soo Locks actually started much earlier, with childhood visits. “We had family in the Upper Peninsula, and when we’d visit them, the locks were always a big part of those trips,” she said. At the time, she never could have imagined she would one day return to the same place to help run the operation.
The move north eventually became both a personal and professional decision. With her parents retiring to the area and her own family growing—she and her husband have three sons—it felt like the right moment to make a change. “It was the right time in my life to make that jump and give my family a different pace of living,” she said.
Today, that decision has shaped not just her career, but her family’s lifestyle, balancing her high-pressure job with a close-knit, outdoors-focused family life: hiking, kayaking, hunting, fishing and even making maple syrup in the spring.
For most of us, the Soo Locks operate in the background without us giving them much thought. But their impact is everywhere—from the steel in buildings to the materials that keep industries running.
Under leaders like Ryckeghem, the Soo Locks continue to do what they’ve always done: keep things moving. It’s complex, essential work that most people never see - but we all rely on every day.