Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada, near the border between the United States and Canada. It is the headquarters of the Algoma District and the third-largest city in northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay.

To the south, across the river, is the United States and the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. These two communities were the same city until a new treaty, after the war of 1812, established the border between Canada and the United States in the area of ​​the Ste. Marie River. In the 21st century, the two cities are linked by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side and the Huron Highway (and the old Ontario 550B secondary highway) on the Ontario side. Maritime traffic in the Great Lakes system evades the rapids of the Ste. Marie River through the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest channel in terms of tonnage passing through it, while cruise ships and ships Smaller tourists use the Canadian channel Sault Ste.Marie.

The French settlers referred to the rapids of the river as Les Sauts de Ste. Marie and the name of the town derived from there. The rapids and waterfalls of the Ste. Marie river descends more than 20 feet from the Lake Superior level to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this halted maritime traffic, which required a porting of ships and cargo by land. The name translates as "the rapids of Ste. Marie" or "the waterfalls of Ste. Marie". The word sault is pronounced in French in the name of the city. The residents of the city are called saultites.

Sault Ste. Marie borders to the east with the Rankin and First Garden Garden River reserves, and to the west by the municipality of Prince. To the north, the city is surrounded by an unincorporated part of the Algoma District, which includes the local services councils of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Peace Tree and Searchmont. According to the 2011 census, the city, including the municipalities of Laird, Prince, Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional and the First Nations reserves of the Garden and Rankin River, has a total population of 79,800.

The Native American settlements, being the majority of the Ojibwa-speaking towns, have existed here for over 500 years. At the end of the 17th century, French Jesuit missionaries established a mission in the First Nations people. This was followed by the development of a fur trading post and a larger settlement, and merchants, hunters, and Native Americans were attracted to the community. This settlement was considered a community and part of Canada until after the war of 1812 and the elimination of the border between Canada and the US. on the river Ste. Marie. The USA. it prohibited British merchants from operating in their territory, and the areas separated by the river began to develop as two communities, both called Sault Ste. Marie.