Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario cascades of the St. Mary's River descend more than from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this slowed shipping traffic, requiring an overland portage of boats and cargo from one lake to the other. The entire name translates to "Saint Mary's Rapids" or "Saint Mary's Falls". The word "sault" is pronounced in French, and in the English pronunciation of the city name. Residents of the city are called "Saultites". Sault Ste. Marie is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Garden River First Nation reserves, and to the west
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Sault Ste. Marie Canal, which was completed in 1895. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario was incorporated as a town in 1887 and a city in 1912. The town gained brief international notoriety in 1911 in the trial of Angelina Napolitano, the first person in Canada to use the battered woman defence for murder. During World War II, and particularly after the US was attacked at Pearl Harbor in 1941, government concern turned to protection of the locks and shipping channel at Sault Ste. Marie. A substantial military presence was established to protect the locks from a possible attack by Nazi German