Michigan's oldest city is older than the United States
Sault Ste. Marie's 1668 French mission date makes it Michigan's oldest city. Anishinaabeg had gathered at Bahweting, the rapids, for millennia before Europeans arrived.
The date Sault Ste. Marie uses for its city history is 1668. That is 108 years before the Declaration of Independence.
Sault Ste. Marie — known as “the Soo” — sits beside the St. Marys River, where Lake Superior drains toward the lower Great Lakes. Long before Europeans arrived, Anishinaabeg gathered here at Bahweting, the rapids, to fish and spend summers together. The Sault Tribe traces Anishinaabe life in the Great Lakes region back millennia.
In 1668, a French Jesuit mission was established at the river. That mission date is the one behind Sault Ste. Marie’s standing as Michigan’s oldest city and one of the oldest cities in the United States. It marks the beginning of the city’s recorded French settlement, not the beginning of people living at the rapids.
The river still defines the city. The Soo Locks now move ships between Lake Superior and the lower lakes, but the place was a regional gathering point long before the first lock opened in 1855.
Where to see it
The Chippewa County Historical Society in downtown Sault Ste. Marie covers the city's recorded history. The Sault Tribe's official history explains the much older Anishinaabe story of Bahweting and the St. Marys River.
Sources
Last reviewed against the listed sources: July 14, 2026.