Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan should not be confused with Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
| Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan | |
| Official Name: | City of Sault Ste. Marie |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Nickname: | The Sault, The Soo |
| Mapsize: | 250 |
| Flag Size: | 100px |
| Seal Size: | 40px |
| Pushpin Map: | Michigan#USA |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within the state of Michigan##Location within the United States |
| Pushpin Label Position: | left |
| Pushpin Label: | Sault Ste. Marie |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Chippewa |
| Government Type: | Council–manager |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Don Gerrie |
| Leader Title1: | Manager |
| Leader Name1: | Brian Chapman |
| Established Title: | Established |
| Established Date: | 1668 |
| Established Title2: | Incorporated |
| Established Date2: | 1879 (village) 1887 (city) |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 51.86 |
| Area Land Km2: | 38.22 |
| Area Water Km2: | 13.64 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 20.02 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 14.76 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 5.27 |
| Area Water Percent: | 26.74 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 13337 |
| Population Density Km2: | 348.95 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 903.77 |
| Timezone: | EST |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -4 |
| Coordinates: | 46.4969°N -84.3456°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code(s) |
| Postal Code: | 49783 |
| Area Code: | 906 |
| Elevation Ft: | 617 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 26-71740 |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 637276 |
Sault Ste. Marie () is a city in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Chippewa County and is the only city within the county.[2] With a population of 13,337 at the 2020 census, it is the second-most populated city in the Upper Peninsula, behind Marquette. It is the primary city of the Sault Ste. Marie, MI Micropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Chippewa County and had a population of 36,785 at the 2020 census. Sault Ste. Marie was settled by mostly French colonists in 1668, making it the oldest city in Michigan.[3]
Sault Ste. Marie is located along the St. Marys River, which flows from Lake Superior to Lake Huron and forms part of the United States–Canada border. Across the river is the larger Ontario town of the same name; the two cities are connected by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge. Between the two cities are the Soo Locks, a set of locks allowing ship travel between Lake Superior and the Lower Great Lakes.
Sault Ste. Marie is home to Lake Superior State University.[4]
The city name was derived from the French term for the nearby rapids, which were called Les Saults de Sainte Marie. Sainte Marie (Saint Mary) was the name of the river and Saults referred to the rapids.(The archaic spelling Sault is a relic of the Middle French Period. Latin salta successively became Old French salte (c. 800 – c. 1340), Middle French sault, and Modern French saut, as in the verb sauter, to jump.)
Whereas the modern saut means simply "(a) jump", sault in the 17th century was also applied to cataracts, waterfalls and rapids. This resulted in such place names as Grand Falls/Grand-Sault, and Sault-au-Récollet on the Island of Montreal in Canada; and Sault-Saint-Remy and Sault-Brénaz in France. In contemporary French, the word for "rapids" is rapides.
French: Sault Sainte-Marie in French means "the Rapids of Saint Mary" (for a more detailed discussion, refer to the Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario page). The Saint Mary's River runs from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, between what are now the twin border cities on either side.
No hyphens are used in the English spelling, which is otherwise identical to the French, but the pronunciations differ. Anglophones say and Francophones say pronounced as /fr/. In French, the name can be written French: Sault-Sainte-Marie. On both sides of the border, the towns and the general vicinity are called The Sault (usually pronounced), or The Soo.
For centuries, Oc̣eṭi Ṡakowiƞ (Dakota, Lakota, Nakoda), or Sioux, people lived in the area.[5] Around the 1300s, the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) began to move in from the East Coast, gradually pushing the Oc̣eṭi Ṡakowiƞ westward. They called the area Baawitigong ("at the cascading rapids"), after the rapids of St. Marys River. French colonists renamed the region Saulteaux ("rapids" in French). The Oc̣eṭi Ṡakowiƞ came to call the Anishinaabe "Ḣaḣaṭuƞwaƞ", or "Dwellers of the Falls."
In 1668, French missionaries Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquette founded a Jesuit mission at this site. Sault Ste. Marie developed as one of oldest European cities in the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains, and the oldest permanent European settlement in Michigan. On June 4, 1671, Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson, a colonial agent, was dispatched from Quebec to the distant tribes, proposing a congress of Indian nations at the Falls of St. Mary between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. Trader Nicolas Perrot helped attract the principal chiefs, and representatives of 14 Indigenous nations were invited for the elaborate ceremony. The French officials proclaimed France's appropriation of the immense territory surrounding Lake Superior in the name of King Louis XIV.[6]
In the 18th century, the settlement became an important center of the fur trade, when it was a post for the British-owned North West Company, based in Montreal. The fur trader John Johnston, a Scots-Irish immigrant from Belfast, was considered the first European settler in 1790. He married a high-ranking Ojibwe woman named Ozhaguscodaywayquay, the daughter of a prominent chief, Waubojeeg. She also became known as Susan Johnston. Their marriage was one of many alliances in the northern areas between high-ranking European traders and Ojibwe. The family was prominent among Native Americans, First Nations, and Europeans from both Canada and the United States. They had eight children who learned fluent Ojibwe, English and French. The Johnstons entertained a variety of trappers, explorers, traders, and government officials, especially during the years before the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States.[7]
For more than 140 years, the settlement was a single community under French colonial, and later, British colonial rule. After the War of 1812, a US–UK Joint Boundary Commission finally fixed the border in 1817 between the Michigan Territory of the US and the British Province of Upper Canada to follow the river in this area. Whereas traders had formerly moved freely through the whole area, the United States forbade Canadian traders from operating in the United States, which reduced their trade and disrupted the area's economy. The American and Canadian communities of Sault Ste. Marie were each incorporated as independent municipalities toward the end of the 19th century.[8]
As a result of the fur trade, the settlement attracted Ojibwe and Ottawa, Métis, and ethnic Europeans of various nationalities. It was a two-tiered society, with fur traders (who had capital) and their families and upper-class Ojibwe in the upper echelon. In the aftermath of the War of 1812, however, the community's society changed markedly.
The U.S. built Fort Brady near the settlement, introducing new troops and settlers, mostly Anglo-American. The UK and the US settled on a new northern boundary in 1817, dividing the US and Canada along St. Mary's River. The US prohibited British fur traders from operating in the United States. After completion of the Erie Canal in New York State in 1825 (expanded in 1832), the number of settlers migrating to Ohio and Michigan increased dramatically from New York and New England, bringing with them the Yankee culture of the Northern Tier. Their numbers overwhelmed the cosmopolitan culture of the earlier settlers. They practiced more discrimination against Native Americans and Métis.
The falls proved a choke point for shipping between the Great Lakes. Early ships traveling to and from Lake Superior were portaged around the rapids[9] in a lengthy process (much like moving a house) that could take weeks. Later, only the cargoes were unloaded, hauled around the rapids, and then loaded onto other ships waiting below the rapids. The first American lock, the State Lock, was built in 1855; it was instrumental in improving shipping. The lock has been expanded and improved over the years.
In 1900, Northwestern Leather Company opened a tannery in Sault Ste. Marie.[10] The tannery was founded to process leather for the upper parts of shoes, which was finer than that for soles.[11] After the factory closed in 1958, the property was sold to Filborn Limestone, a subsidiary of Algoma Steel Corporation.[12]
In March 1938 during the Great Depression, Sophia Nolte Pullar bequeathed $70,000 for construction of the Pullar Community Building, which opened in 1939. This building held an indoor ice rink composed of artificial ice, then a revolutionary concept. The ice rink is still owned by the city.[13]
The city is located at 46°49'N 84°35'W.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 20.16sqmi, of which 14.77sqmi is land and 5.39sqmi is water.[14] The city's downtown is on an island, formed by the Sault Ste. Marie Power Canal to the south and the St. Mary's River and Soo Locks to the north.
Under the Köppen climate classification, Sault Ste. Marie has a humid continental climate (Dfb) with cold, snowy winters and warm summers.[15] Sault Ste. Marie is one of the snowiest places in Michigan, receiving an average of 120inches of snow per winter season, with a record year when 209inches fell. 62inches of snow fell in one five-day snowstorm, including 28inches in 24 hours, in December 1995. During this time, the city proper experienced a far greater level of snowfall than the farmlands past the canal and riverfront due to lake-effect snow. This caused the 1437th MRBC National Guard local armory to be mobilized for disaster relief in order to remove hundreds of tons of snow which effectively blockaded people within their own homes.[16] Precipitation measured as equivalent rainfall, Sault Ste. Marie receives an annual average of 33inches. Its immediate region is the cloudiest in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, having over 200 cloudy days a year.
Temperatures in Sault Ste. Marie have varied between a record low of -36°F and a record high of 98°F. Monthly average temperatures range from 13°F in January to 64°F in July.[17] On average, only two out of every five years reaches 90°F, while there are 85.5 days annually where the high remains at or below freezing and 26.5 nights with a low of 0°F or colder.
Average monthly precipitation is lowest in February, and highest in September and October. This autumn maximum in precipitation, unusual for humid continental climates, owes to this area's Great Lakes location. From May through July (usually the year's wettest months in most of the upper Midwestern United States, away from large bodies of water), the lake waters surrounding Sault Ste. Marie are cooler than nearby land areas. This tends to stabilize the atmosphere, suppressing precipitation (especially showers and thunderstorms) somewhat, in May, June and July. In autumn, the lakes are releasing their stored heat from the summer, making them warmer than the surrounding land, and increasingly frequent and strong polar and Arctic air outbreaks pick up warmth and moisture during their over-water passage, resulting in clouds and instability showers. In Sault Ste. Marie, this phenomenon peaks in September and October, making these the wettest months of the year. Also noteworthy is that in Sault Ste. Marie, the year's third wettest month, on average, is November, and not any summer month.
As of the census of 2020,[18] the population was 13,337. The population density was 903.8PD/sqmi. There were 6,234 housing units at an average density of 422.4/sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 68.9% White, 17.8% Native American, 1.0% Black or African American, 0.9% Asian, 0.8% from other races, and 10.7% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 2.4% Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Tourism is a major industry in the area. The Soo Locks and nearby Kewadin Casino, Hotel and Convention Center—which is owned by the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians—are the major draws, as well as the forests, inland lakes, and Lake Superior shoreline. Sault Ste. Marie is also a gateway to Lake Superior's scenic north shore through its twin city Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The two cities are connected by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, a steel truss arch bridge with suspended deck passing over the St. Marys River.
Sault Ste. Marie is home to Lake Superior State University (LSSU), founded in 1946 as an extension campus of Michigan College of Mining and Technology (now Michigan Technological University); the campus was originally Fort Brady. LSSU is home to the LSSU Lakers (D1 Hockey (CCHA), D2 all other sports (GLIAC). LSSU has around 1500 students, making it Michigan's smallest public university.
The area school district is Sault Ste. Marie Area Schools.[19]
The Sault's primary public high school is Sault Area High School (SAHS). "Sault High" is one of the few high schools in the state with attached career center. The school's mascot is the Blue Devil. "Sault High" houses a variety of successful varsity sports teams, such as hockey, wrestling, baseball, and basketball. Altogether, the school provides 24 competitive sports teams for both boys and girls at all levels. [20] The school district also operates Malcolm High School as an alternative high school.
Sault Ste. Marie has two middle schools, one in the Sault Ste. Marie School System known as Sault Area Middle School. Before the 6th grade annex was added in the late 1980s, the school was referred to as Sault Area Junior High School. The Second Middle School is a part of Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting School, a Native American-affiliated Public School Academy.
There are two elementary schools in Sault Ste. Marie, Lincoln Elementary and Washington Elementary. There is also a Public School Academy, Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting School, and the St. Mary's Catholic School. Jefferson Elementary, McKinley Elementary, Bruce Township Elementary, and Soo Township Elementary (converted into an Alternative High School) have closed because of declining enrollment in the school system.
St. Mary's Catholic School serves students in grades K–8. It is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette.[21]
There is a Bureau of Indian Education-affiliated tribal school, Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe School.[22] It was established in 1994 and received its current name in 1998.[23]
All stations listed here are rebroadcasters of television stations based in Traverse City and Cadillac.
NBC and ABC are also served by WTOM channel 4 from Cheboygan, which repeats WPBN-TV and WGTU. The market can also receive select over the air channels from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, including Global Toronto on channel 12.1 at CIII-DT-12, and CTV Northern Ontario on analog channel 2 at CHBX. Channel 8.3 was previously the science fiction network Comet until being replaced by Charge!, which is also operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
The area has no local PBS, The CW, or MyNetworkTV service over-the-air. The Spectrum cable system offers all three in their regional packages through Marquette's PBS affiliate WNMU-TV, Cadillac's CW affiliate WFQX-CW, and joint MyNetworkTV/Cozi TV affiliate WXII-LD out of Cedar. The next closest PBS station after WNMU is Cadillac satellite station WCMV.
None of these stations are seen on cable in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, as Shaw Cable chooses to largely air Detroit affiliates for over the air channels, while WUHF in Rochester, New York, WPIX in New York City, New York, and WSBK-TV in Boston, Massachusetts provide the closest Fox, CW, and MNTV affiliates carried by Shaw in the market.
Other stations serving the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, market:
The city's main daily paper is The Sault News, formerly the Sault Evening News.
Spectator sports in Sault Ste. Marie include Lake Superior State University Athletics and the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL). The Lakers participate in NCAA Division I Ice Hockey and Division II Women's and Men's Basketball, Women's and Men's Golf, Women's Volleyball, Women's and Men's Track and Field, Women's and Men's Tennis and Women's and Men's Cross Country.
Nicknamed the Lakers, LSSU's hockey program is celebrating its 50th season of intercollegiate competition. The team plays its home contests at Taffy Abel Arena (4,000 seats) on LSSU's campus and is one of the most decorated in NCAA hockey history. The squad claimed two NAIA titles in the 1970s before a run of three NCAA division one championships (1988, 1992, 1994) and one finalist appearance (1993) in the late 1980s and early 90s. They compete in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA).
The rest of the athletic teams play in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). The basketball programs at LSSU have seen their share of success. The Men's program won overall GLIAC regular season titles in 2014–15, 2013–14, 1995-1996 (Tournament Champion) and also claimed the north division crown in 2008–09. LSSU's women's program won GLIAC gold from 2001 to 2002 through 2004–05. They also captured GLIAC tournament titles in 2002-03 and 2003–04. Both Men's and Women's squads play their home games in the Bud Cooper Gymnasium within the Norris Center.
Sault Ste. Marie is the home of the International 500 Snowmobile Race (commonly called the I-500), which takes place annually and draws participants and spectators from all over the U.S. and Canada. The race, which was inspired by the Indianapolis 500,[24] originated in 1969 and has been growing ever since.
The city is home to the northern terminus of Interstate 75 (I-75), which connects with the Mackinac Bridge at St. Ignace approximately 50miles to the south, and continues south to near Miami. M-129 also has its northern terminus in the city. M-129 was at one time a part of the Dixie Highway system, which was intended to connect the northern industrial states with the southern agricultural states. Until 1984 the city was the eastern terminus of the western segment of US 2. County Highway H-63 (or Mackinac Trail) also has its northern terminus in the city and extends south to St. Ignace and follows a route very similar to I-75. The city is joined to its Canadian counterpart by the International Bridge, which connects I-75 in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Huron Street in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Commercial airline service is provided to the city by the Chippewa County International Airport in Kinross, about 20miles south of the city. Smaller general aviation aircraft also use the Sault Ste. Marie Municipal Airport about one 1miles southwest of downtown.
Sault Ste. Marie was the namesake of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway, now the Soo Line Railroad, the U.S. arm of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This railroad had a bridge parallel to the International Bridge crossing the St. Marys River. The Soo Line has since, through a series of acquisitions and mergers of portions of the system, been split between Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railway (CN). Canadian National operates the rail lines and the bridge in the Sault Ste. Marie area that were part of the Soo Line.
The Sugar Island Ferry provides automobile and passenger access between Sault Ste. Marie and Sugar Island, formerly a center of maple sugaring. The short route that the ferry travels crosses the shipping channel. Despite the high volume of freighter traffic through the locks, freighters typically do not dock in the Sault. However, the city hosts tugs, a tourist passenger ferry service, and a Coast Guard station along the shoreline on the lower (east) side of the Soo Locks. The United States Postal Service operates a "Marine Post Office", situated within the locks, to service ships as they pass through.
Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the rapids in the St. Marys River via the American Soo Locks. Locally, it is often claimed to be the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage passing through it. The largest ships are 1000feet long by 105feet wide. These are domestic carriers (called lakers). Smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal. The lakers, being too large to transit the Welland Canal that bypasses Niagara Falls, are therefore land-locked. Foreign ships (termed salties) are smaller and can exit the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean.
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada (also twin city)[29]