SAULT SAINTE MARIE (scro-sant-ma-re'), a city of Michigan, U.S.A., at the east end of the Upper Peninsula, on St. Mary's river, the outlet from Lake Superior into Lake Huron; a port of entry and the county seat of Chippewa county. It is on Federal highway 2 and is the northern terminus of the Dixie highway; and is served by the Canadian Pacific, the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic and the Soo Line railways, and lake steamers. A railway bridge and ferries connect it with the Cana dian town of the same name in Ontario on the north side of the river. The population was 12,096 in 1920 (31% foreign-born white, chiefly from Canada) and was 13,755 in 1930 by Federal census. The river here drops ("leaps") 20 ft. in less than a mile, which explains the name given to the falls by the early French missionaries. The two canals, with their five great locks (four on the American side, one on the Canadian), are the greatest ship highway in the world. An average of zoo ships a day pass through during the navigation season of eight months, and the total traffic in 1928 amounted to 86,992,927 tons, valued at $1, 183,123,800. The Davis and the Sabin locks (1,350 ft. long and 8o ft. wide) are the longest in the world. Two large hydro-electric plants generate current from the falls. The city is the centre of a summer-resort region abounding in beautiful scenery, good fishing and hunting, with a climate especially favourable to cases of hay fever. It has a considerable lake traffic (760,926 tons in 1925), chiefly in coal and limestone; is a shipping point for farm, forest and dairy products by rail; and has various manufacturing industries, with an output in 1927 valued at $8,950,416. Since
1917 it has had a commission-manager form of government.
Sault Sainte Marie is the oldest settlement in Michigan. The place was a favourite fishing-ground of the Chippewa Indians. It was visited in succession by Etienne Brule (some time between 1611 and Jean Nicollet (1634), Jogues and Rambault, who gave it its name (1641), Radisson and Groseilliers (i658), and in 1668 Father Marquette founded a mission here. In 1671 the governor-general of New France called a great council of the Indians at this spot, and in the name of the king of France took formal possession of all the country south to the Gulf of Mexico and west to the Pacific. The British flag flew over the American Sault from 1762 until June 15, 1820, when Governor Lewis Cass raised the Stars and Stripes. The first Ft. Brady was built in 1822 and was occupied until 1893, when the post was rebuilt on its present site. The village was incorporated in 1879 and was chartered as a city in 1887. St. Mary's river was navigated by the canoes and bateaux of the Indians and early voyageurs, who made a portage around the falls. The North West Fur company built a lock on the Canadian side of the river in 1797-98. The state lock and canal (later widened and deepened by the Federal government) were opened in 1855. The Weitzel lock (515 ft. long) was completed in 1881; the Canadian (900 ft.) in 1895; the Poe (Soo ft.) in 1896; the Davis in 1914; and the Sabin in 1919. Previously to 1929 the maximum traffic passing "the Soo" in a year was 91,888,219 net tons in 1916.