Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. is a tourist destination for many people throughout any given year, but tourist industry officials anticipate the city will be the focus of even more attention in 2018.
This year marks the 350th anniversary of the first European settlement in the area in 1668.
“Visitors are surprised at how old the city is,” said Linda Hoath, Sault Ste. Marie Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) executive director, speaking to SooToday.
“Most of our visitors are from Michigan, from the Detroit area and the Great Lakes States, and we’re seeing a lot of people from China here. We’re seeing so many more international people.”
“We had travel writers here last year writing about us, and those articles are starting to come out in all sorts of different magazines now,” Hoath said.
Sault, Mich. is now marketing itself internationally in partnership with Pure Michigan and Brand USA.
Tourist industry officials are incorporating the 350th anniversary theme into many of city’s tourist attractions and events this year.
The celebrations kicked off with the ball drop during New Year’s Eve festivities at the corner of Portage Avenue and Ashmun Street.
“We had an 87-year-old down there at the ball drop and she was so excited to be a part of it, because they’ve been around and watched the city grow and change,” Hoath said.
The CVB is spending approximately $500,000 (USD) from its budget on marketing the 350th anniversary.
“We’ve increased our budget by about five per cent and we’re looking at a very big summer,” Hoath said.
Some of the events planned for 2018 include;
- The Downtown Winter Ice Festival, Jan. 26 and 27
- Snowmobile Parade Guinness World Record Attempt, Feb. 1
- 50th Annual I-500 Snowmobile Race, Feb. 3
- Winter Skate Party, Feb. 17
- Opening of the Soo Locks, March 25
- International Bridge Walk, June 23
- Soo Locks Engineers Weekend June 29 and 30
- Independence Day Parade, July 4
- 350th Festival (including history, games, children and teens zones, music, entertainment and food), July 21 to 27
- Rendezvous in the Sault (a living history event with historical re-enactors), July 28 and 29
“We want to have an event every month,” Hoath said.
A full listing of 350th anniversary events throughout 2018 and more information pertaining to each one can be found online at the Sault Ste. Marie Convention and Visitors Bureau website.
The Guinness World Record Snowmobile Parade is scheduled for Feb.1, the Thursday before the 50th Annual International I-500 Snowmobile Race to be held at the I-500 track Saturday, Feb. 3.
Organizers hope to register a world record-breaking number of snowmobilers Feb. 1, the current record being 1,047.
“Then we go into March where we’ll celebrate the first ship of the season, that’s always big, and for the next couple of months they will be focusing on teaching the history of Sault Ste. Marie to the kids in elementary schools,” Hoath said.
Holy Name of Mary Pro-Cathedral on East Portage Avenue, Hoath said, has received permission from the city to dedicate a commemorative rock at the spot where the Jesuits mission to the area started in the 17th century.
That dedication will take place on a yet-to-be-finalized date in the spring.
Sault Ste. Marie is Michigan’s oldest city, the oldest city in the American Midwest and, historians say, the third oldest city east of the Appalachians.
Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit priest, established a Catholic mission among the Indigenous inhabitants there in 1668.
That settlement eventually transformed into Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. and its twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
Notable places in Sault, Mich. include the Soo Locks (which attracted 500,000 visitors last year, Hoath said), Pullar Stadium, the Ramada Ojibway Hotel, the Soo Theatre, Holy Name of Mary Pro-Cathedral, Taffy Abel Arena and Lake Superior State University (originally Fort Brady).