page_title: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
hierarchical_section_title: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
caption_attribution_description: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, United States
context_page_description: Sault Ste. Marie, officially the City of Sault Sainte Marie, is a city in, and the county seat of, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is on the northeastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the Canada–US border, and separated from its twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by the St. Marys River. The city is relatively isolated from other communities in Michigan and is 346 miles via I-75 from downtown Detroit. The population was 14,144 at the 2010 census, making it the second-most populous city in the Upper Peninsula. By contrast, the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie is much larger, with more than 75,000 residents, based on more extensive industry developed in the 20th century and an economy with closer connections to other communities.
  Sault Ste. Marie was settled by Native Americans more than 12,000 years ago, and was long a crossroads of fishing and trading of tribes around the Great Lakes. Beginning in the late 17th century, it developed as the first European settlement in the region that became the Midwestern United States. Father Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit, learned of the Native American village and traveled there in 1668 to found a Catholic mission.
context_section_description: Sault Ste. Marie (/ˌsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ SOO-seint-ma-REE), officially the City of Sault Sainte Marie, is a city in, and the county seat of, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is on the northeastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the Canada–US border, and separated from its twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by the St. Marys River. The city is relatively isolated from other communities in Michigan and is 346 miles via I-75 from downtown Detroit. The population was 14,144 at the 2010 census, making it the second-most populous city in the Upper Peninsula. By contrast, the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie is much larger, with more than 75,000 residents, based on more extensive industry developed in the 20th century and an economy with closer connections to other communities.
  Sault Ste. Marie was settled by Native Americans more than 12,000 years ago, and was long a crossroads of fishing and trading of tribes around the Great Lakes. Beginning in the late 17th century, it developed as the first European settlement in the region that became the Midwestern United States. Father Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit, learned of the Native American village and traveled there in 1668 to found a Catholic mission. French colonists later established a fur trading post, which attracted trappers and Native Americans on a seasonal basis. By the late 18th century, both Métis men and women became active in the trade and were considered among the elite in the community. A fur-trading settlement quickly grew at the crossroads that straddled the banks of the river. It was the center of a trading route of 3,000 miles (4,800 km) that extended from Montreal to the Sault, and from the Sault to the country north of Lake Superior. 
  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 nineteenth century.
  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 /ˌsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ and Francophones say [so sɛ̃t maʁi]. In French, the name can be written Sault-Sainte-Marie. On both sides of the border, the towns and the general vicinity are called The Sault (usually pronounced /suː/), or The Soo.
  The two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 (I-75) in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Huron Street in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. 
  Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the rapids 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 1,000 feet (300 m) long by 105 feet (32 m) 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 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
caption: View of Sault Ste. Marie from the Canadian side of the St. Marys River
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