Sault Ste. Marie 

The St. Mary's River area in Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula has been a gathering place for North American Indians for at least eight hundred years.  In 1668, Fathers Marquette & Dablon established a Catholic Indian Mission at the foot of these rapids and named the location Sault Ste. Marie (The Rapids of Saint Mary).  Sault Ste. Marie (population 18,000) is one of the oldest cities in North America, having begun as a fur trading center in the early 17th century.  In 1812 the U.S. built Fort Brady at Sault Ste. Marie to secure the border against the British, who still secured the land across the River in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  The fort was to allow Sault Ste. Marie to serve as the gateway to the mineral wealth in the western Upper Peninsula.  Between 1852-1855, the Soo Locks were built.  This allowed for the easy flow of shipping traffic between Lake Superior and the remaining great lakes.  In 1944 the fort was deactivated with the help of local volunteers and the leadership of the Michigan College on Mining & Technology in Houghton.  In 1946, Michigan College on Mining & Technology opened a residence center.  The Residence center became the Lake Superior State College in the 1970's.  University status was granted in 1987.  The college was now known as Lake Superior State University the state's smallest public institution of higher learning.  Enrollment has grown from 272 to over 3,400. 

Soo Locks

Flechter Center at LSSU

Brady Hall at LSSU