Sault Ste. Marie

A few days ago I stopped in Sault Ste. Marie.  When I was a little girl, I read a book about a ballet dancer who grew up there, and ever since, I've wanted to go.  Supposedly it has 75,000 residents but it seemed bigger than that.  I liked it, at least the main part of the city.  Driving in from the highway, there was nothing but fast food joints and car dealerships, but the downtown and "suburban" type areas were nice.

My first stop was at the Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site, which are two homes preserved from the mid-late 1880s.  They were sort of your typical "old stone house", but bigger, and had a lot of information about the history of the area as well as the homes.

The Ermatinger House

The Clergue House.  The owner built the wooden part on top of a building used to store gunpowder.

My next and favorite stop was to see the locks, which is one of the main reasons the city of Sault Ste. Marie grew in the first place.  Sadly, I didn't get to see the locks in action, but they were pretty neat anyway.  I've always like watching heavy industry, and I guess canal locks count.

The bridge to the USA.

That was it for the day; my afternoon was spent driving towards my next main stop.