Sault Ste. Marie

History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 1620s, the area that is now Sault Ste. Marie was shared by the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi whose Algonkian ancestors had come from the east around 1200. The rapids created an impediment to travel and an obvious stopping point for voyages west to Lake Superior or east to Lake Huron. In addition, the location offered a strong strategic position to observe movement along the river. The Indigenous people drew on the ample resources of the area including wild game and berries, materials to build shelters, and most importantly sturgeon in the spring and abundant whitefish in the fall. The Ojibwe called this area , meaning "place of the rapids" and maintained a permanent settlement of about 150 to 200 people. Baawitigong was also an important meeting place for the broader family of Algonquin peoples and would grow to thousands during the whitefish season each year. The very first European recorded to have seen the rapids was French explorer Étienne Brûlé, whose 1621 voyage to the mouth of Lake Superior took him, together with his Huron guides, along the north channel of Lake Huron. The French named this area of rapids Sault de Gaston in honour of Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the brother of King Louis XIII. This is the name that appears on Samuel de Champlain's 1632 map of New France based on descriptions from Brûlé and others. In 1668, French Jesuit missionaries renamed the area Sault Sainte-Marie, and established a mission settlement on the river's south bank, making Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan one of the oldest French settlements in North America. Based on his voyages with the Jesuits the year before, explorer Louis Jolliet marked the area "Le Sault St. Marie" on his 1674 map. Sault Ste. Marie formed a key crossroads of the fur…