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Hunts' Guide to Michigan's UPPER PENINSULA

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SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN
POINTS
OF INTEREST

Soo Locks Park & Visitor Center. This is the place to get really close-up views of giant freighters, plus see some interesting exhibits ... more

Soo Lock Train Tours. Great intro to Soo. Smart, funny 1-hour narrated tour of historic sites. From International Bridge, look down 135' on all 5 locks. ... more

Soo Locks Boat Tour. This 2-hour excursion provides a dramatic look at the big locks, the quaint Canadian locks, and the Twin Soo's waterfronts. ... more

River of History Museum. Compelling life-size dioramas bring to life scenes from Sault Ste. Marie's long history and prehistory. ... more

Riverfront walk along Water Street and Brady Park. See upbound boats waiting at the locks at beautiful Brady Park, site of the 19th c. fort. See interesting historic monuments from Sault Ste. Marie's aspiring years, including idiosyncratic Chase Osborn, the only U.P. governor. ... more

Bingham Avenue historic buildings. An avenue of grand 19th-century buildings, from a time when locals saw a grander future for the city than actually unfolded ... more

Tower of History. An oustanding geographical of the area from a 21-story tower. ... more

St. Mary's Pro-cathedral. This 1880s cathedral has a wonderful interior, with richly colored stained glass and striking wall accents ... more

Schoolcraft, Johnston and Baraga houses. Three of the earliest and most significant houses in Upper Peninsula history ... more

George Kemp Downtown Marina . A nice picnic area at a beautiful marina ... more

Museum Ship Valley Camp . A 1917 Great Lakes steamship is the vehicle for an interesting maritime museum ... more

St. Mary's River Lighthouse Cruise. A 4-hour journey past landmarks like the lighthouse at the entrance to the St. Marys River ... more

Edison Sault Power Plant & Alford Park. This 1902 quarter-mile-long landmark never attracted the industries it was built to serve, but still generates electricity ... more

Mission Point, Aune Osborn Park & Sugar Island Ferry. It's been called the #1 place anywhere to see Great Lakes freighters in motion ... more

Sugar Island. Once a favorite Chippewa sugaring spot, the island still has many maples and still is a popular stop for migrating birds ... more

New Fort Brady/Lake Superior State University. Begun in 1893 as an Army fort and barracks for 20,000 troops, this overlook now is the site of 3,300-student Lake Superior State University ... more

International Bridge. Connecting the 5,000-mile Trans-Canada Highway with 2,000-mile I-75 to Florida, this 1962 bridge does much more than connect the two Soos ... more

SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN

New Fort Brady/Lake Superior State University

With some 3,300 students, almost all undergraduates, Lake Superior State University - or Lake State, as it's known locally - is Michigan's smallest public university. Personal attention is one of its well-deserved selling points. Sue Harrison, best-selling author of prehistoric fiction (Mother Earth, Father Sky) attributes her success to professors here who encouraged her through years of rejections from publishers.

Wildlife management, business management, and criminal justice are some of Lake State's biggest programs. A fair percentage of its students commute from Canada. The placid campus had been a fort and army barracks since 1893. General Philip Sheridan, famous for his destructive Civil War march through Georgia, had chosen the site. He relocated the fort to this high point to better guard the Soo Locks and its strategic iron shipments, essential for military production in wartime.

Today the possibility of attack seems far-fetched, but it wasn't. Over 20,000 troops were stationed here at one time. Fort Brady was most active during World War I and just before American involvement in World War II. During that war the fort bristled with antiaircraft gun emplacements protecting the locks.

In 1946 “New Fort Brady” was given to the state of Michigan and used by Michigan College of Mining and Technology (today's Michigan Tech) as an instant campus to accommodate returning World War II vets going to college on the G.I. Bill.

Some of the late-Victorian fort's buildings were erected as multi-gabled barracks. Others were officers' quarters and offices that resemble overgrown, simplified Queen Anne houses with porches. They're arranged around a parade ground akin to a collegiate quadrangle. Pick up an interesting annotated map and self-guided walking tour at the admissions office in Hillside House. (See entrance sign for directions or stop at security office for map.)

The university added new buildings starting in the 1960s. Custom campus tours are by arrangement; call 635-6696 or (888) 800- LSSU and ask for admissions.

Students and faculty participate in a first day of spring celebration that's probably unique. To lift spirits when weeks of snow cover remain, they burn a papier-mâché snowman while passing out flowers and reading poems about spring.

Internationally, LSSU is best known for its Word Banishment List, released by newspapers on January 1. Most-nominated picks for 2000: chad, speaks to, celebrate, fuzzy math, the redundancies “manual recount by hand” and “final destination,” factoid, diva, dude, and “have a good one.” To nominate words or see the whole list, visit www.lssu.edu and scroll down to Word Banishment List. The list is compiled not by the English department but by the public relations office from thousands of nominations, mostly from the U.S. and Canada. Inspired by the Queen's Honor List of new knights, the Word Banishment List was the brainchild of the late Bill Rabe, a metro Detroit PR man who spent the last two decades of his career at LSSU. He devised it to give his school some media visibility and released on January 1, a slow news day. “It's so popular, the press calls us if they don't get their copy by mid-December,” says current PR staffer Tom Pink. He and his co-worker compile the list in between their other, more central duties by getting help from faculty and students in weeding through the nominations.

LSSU is north off Easterday, a major east-west artery that's the last exit off I-75 before the International Bridge. Go east from I-75 or west from Ashmun to reach it. The main entrance is Meridian. (888) 800-LSSU or 632-6841

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