Sault Ste. Marie | |
|---|---|
| City of Sault Ste. Marie | |
 Soo Locks International Bridge, (North) Downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario | |
| Nicknames: | |
| Motto: "Naturally Gifted" | |
  Sault Ste. Marie | |
| Coordinates: 46°33′32″N 84°20′49″W / 46.55889°N 84.34694°W[2] | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| District | Algoma |
| Founded | 1668 |
| Incorporated | 1888 (town) 1912 (city) |
| Government | |
| • Type | Mayor–council |
| • Mayor | Matthew Shoemaker |
| • Council | Sault Ste. Marie City Council |
| • MP | Terry Sheehan (Liberal) |
| • MPP | Ross Romano (PC) |
| Area | |
| • Land | 223.24 km2 (86.19 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 53.05 km2 (20.48 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 805.60 km2 (311.04 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 192 m (630 ft) |
| Population | |
• City (single-tier) | 72,051 |
| • Density | 324.6/km2 (841/sq mi) |
| • Metro | 76,731 |
| • Metro density | 95.6/km2 (248/sq mi) |
| Demonym | Saultite [6] |
| Time zone | UTC−05:00 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−04:00 (EDT) |
| Forward sortation area | |
| Area code(s) | 705, and 249[7] |
| Website | saultstemarie |
| CA rank: 46th in Canada Municipal rank: 66th in Canada | |
Sault Ste. Marie (/ˈsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ SOO-saynt-mə-REE) is a city in Ontario, Canada. The third-largest city in Northern Ontario after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, it is located on the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. To the southwest, across the river, is the United States and the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The two cities are joined by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side to Huron Street on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary's Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.
The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe people of the area, call this area Baawitigong, meaning "place of the rapids". They used this as a regional meeting place during whitefish season in the St. Mary's Rapids (the anglicized form of this name, Bawating, is used in institutional and geographic names in the area). French settlers referred to the rapids on the river as Les Saults de Ste-Marie (the rapids of St. Marie) and the village name was derived from that. The rapids and cascades of the St. Mary's River descend more than 6 m (20 ft) from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this slowed shipping traffic, requiring an overland portage of boats and cargo from one lake to the other. The entire name translates to 'Saint Mary's Rapids' or 'Saint Mary's Falls'. The word sault is pronounced [so] in French, and /suː/ in the English pronunciation of the city name.[8] Residents of the city are called Saultites.[9]
Sault Ste. Marie is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Garden River reserves, and to the west by Prince Township. To the north, the city is bordered by an unincorporated portion of Algoma District, which includes the local services boards of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Peace Tree and Searchmont. The city's census agglomeration, including the townships of Laird, Prince and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional and the First Nations reserves of Garden River and Rankin, had a total population of 79,800 in 2011.
Native American settlements, mostly of Ojibwe-speaking peoples, existed here for more than 500 years. In the late 17th century, French Jesuit missionaries established a mission at the First Nations village. This was followed by development of a fur trading post and larger settlement, as traders, trappers and Native Americans were attracted to the community.
As the community had developed on both sides of the river, it was considered unified and part of Canada. After the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, the border between Canada and the US was finally settled at the St. Mary's River. At that time, the US prohibited British traders from operating in its territory any longer, causing major losses. The areas separated by the river began to develop as two communities, both named Sault Ste. Marie.[10]
- ^ "Factacular : City Nicknames". factacular.com. Archived from the original on 2015-01-03.
- ^ "Sault Ste. Marie". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada.
- ^ a b "Sault Ste. Marie census profile". 2011 Census of Population. Statistics Canada. Archived from the original on 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
- ^ a b "Sault Ste. Marie (Census agglomeration) census profile". 2011 Census of Population. Statistics Canada. Archived from the original on 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
CCNYAMwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Sault Ste. Marie, Soo, Saultite". Translation Bureau. Public Works and Government Services Canada. 8 October 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
- ^ "Time to say goodbye to seven-digit calls" Archived 2011-01-20 at the Wayback Machine, Sootoday
- ^ "History" Archived 2013-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan website
- ^ "Saultite receives honour from the Queen". The Sault Star ~date=15 June 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
- ^ "Sault Ste. Marie – history", The North View, accessed 20 Dec 2008 Archived May 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine