Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan ("rapids" in French). In 1668, French missionaries Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquette founded a Jesuit mission at this site. Sault Ste. Marie developed as the fourth-oldest European city in the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains, and the oldest permanent settlement in contemporary Michigan state. On June 4, 1671, Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson, a colonial agent, was dispatched from Quebec to the distant tribes, proposing a congress of Indian nations at the Falls of St. Mary between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. Trader Nicolas Perrot helped attract the principal chiefs, and representatives of 14 Indigenous nations were invited for
John Johnston House (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan) John Johnston was Justice of the Peace in Sault Ste Marie for many years. He remained in Sault Ste. Marie for the rest of his life, remaining in the fur trade. In 1812, Johnston helped British troops take control of Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island. In 1814, American forces burned his house, as well as $40,000 of his goods, in retaliation. However, Johnston rebuilt, in part by selling his parent's estate in Ireland, and became connected with John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. John Johnston died on September 22, 1828. In 1794, John Johnston constructed a house on this site.