Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario sides of the river. Sault Ste. Marie is one of the oldest French settlements in North America. It was at the crossroads of the 3,000-mile fur trade route, which stretched from Montreal to Sault Ste. Marie and to the North country above Lake Superior. A cosmopolitan, mixed population of Europeans, First Nations peoples, and Métis lived at the village spanning the river. The city name originates from "Saults de Sainte-Marie", archaic French for "Saint Mary's Falls", a reference to the rapids of Saint Marys River. Etymologically, the word "sault" comes from an archaic spelling of "saut" (from "sauter"), which translates
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan snow a year, with a record year when fell. of snow fell in one five-day snowstorm, including in 24 hours, in December 1995. Over the winter of 2015, Sault Ste. Marie received 158.7 inches of snow, ranking it the most snowfall measured in the nation that year. Sault Ste. Marie receives an average annual of precipitation measured as equivalent rainfall. Its immediate region is also the cloudiest in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, having over 200 cloudy days a year. Temperatures in Sault Ste. Marie have varied between a record low of and a record high of . Monthly average temperatures range