Sault Ste. Marie, on

The Sault Ste. Marie region has been inhabited for thousands of years, with indigenous communities using the river for fishing and as a gathering spot. European settlement began in the mid-1600s with the arrival of French Jesuits who set up a mission. The fur trade followed and later a village developed. The Sault Ste. Marie Canal was constructed in the late-1800s after tension between the United States over the use of American-controlled infrastructure. The settlement became a town in 1887 and a city in 1912.