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The middle channel was used in the 1900s frequently for wooden ships. The North Channel was the same way for the lumber hookers and package freight. There was a lively trade from New Baltimore to Port Huron for many years. The Delphine Channel still exists going from the flats to the North Channel.

I don't think freighters ever entered Lake St Clair from anywhere other than the South Channel, and that channel has been modified several times since it was first dredged in 1855. The North Channel still gets an occasional shipload of stone.

Did ships always use the South Channel when transiting the lower part of the St. Clair River at Algonac or did they ever use the North Channel to enter the Middle Channel to reach Lake St. Clair? I recall seeing a few ships go down the North Channel to unload stone on Harsens Island back in the 1980s of which one was the Middletown. I believe the Buffalo also made this trip and I do recall seeing one of USS's stone boats, possibly the T. W. Robinson, Rogers City, or Irvin L. Clymer, upbound in the North Channel on one occasion during the very early 1980s. I was just inquiring if the North Channel and Middle Channel ever saw regular transits of commercial traffic. I'm assuming that there would have been serious water depth problems in these channels for larger vessels.