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Chippewa County Historical Society

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Chippewa County Historical Society

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The research area is now open 10am to 4pm Mondays and Fridays. Parking in the back of the building. Call for appt. and during events.

Office hours are Mondays and Fridays at the back of the building. Gift shop and displays at the front of the building are closed until June tentatively(Access to the shop and displays is possible during office hours, by appt. You also order books through Paypal via cchsmi.com or email us at [email protected]

10/15/2026

Posted by Bernie Arbic of the Chippewa County Historical Society. This picture was obviously taken during some parade or other event, ca. 1934. The view is at the corner of Ashmun and Ridge Streets, looking southwest. Don't ya love that car? I think it is a Model T, but expect that I will be corrected if I'm wrong. The young lady on the running board is wearing some fancy clothes and shoes, and with four other young ladies in the car, perhaps they are Queen candidates for some fair? The man on the opposite running board is holding what appears to be a long branch from a tree, with a rope trailing behind. What is that all about? I love those spoked wheels, but somebody had better put some air into that passenger-side front tire!
In the early 1950s, my father, "Pete" Arbic, worked for the Soo Hardware Wholesale, which was located two blocks north of this scene, on the southwest corner of Water and Ashmun Streets. That very large building extended southward more than halfway up the block toward Portage Avenue. The name of the store at Ridge and Ashmun had been changed ca. 1948, based on a search of our Polk Directory Collection, from Soo Hardware to Ferguson Hardware, probably to distinguish it from the wholesale operation. Both businesses were owned by the Ferguson family. I remember my dad talking about his boss, referring to him as "R.G.," and I learned in my search of the Polk Directories that one of the family principals was named Robert G. Ferguson…. so I'm still learning about things I remember from my boyhood 75 years ago! Walter Materna Collection, neg. #1610.3

10/08/2026

This picture is from 1952. The new Lincoln Elementary School is in the lower left of the picture. The old Lincoln Elementary School is still standing a couple of blocks north and west of the new school (diagonally up and right in the picture). Follow that same line to the right edge of the picture and you see the Bascule (jackknife) railroad bridge over part of the Soo Locks canal. We have a good view of the Upper St Marys River and the hills of Ontario.

We can also see the old brick water tower, at the corner of West Easterday and Ryan. Just above the new Lincoln School and to its right is the St. Joseph’s School. Behind St. Joseph’s School is the old (white) St. Joseph’s Church, which had been moved to that location from Camp Lucas. Remarkably, we can see its twin, just left of the old water tower, the Seventh Day Adventist Church that is still in use today. The old St. Joseph’s Church was replaced with the new St. Joseph’s Church in the early 1960s. Walter and Carl Materna Collection neg # 2110. Post by Collette Coullard

10/01/2026

Posted by Bernie Arbic of the Chippewa County Historical Society. This picture from 1955 shows the Iroquois Lodge, on the northwest corner of Ashmun St. and 12th Avenue. We wonder where their customers parked; apparently on the street, since there is a house immediately west of the Lodge, as shown in the image.
Notice that 12th was unpaved. Marquette Avenue runs east from Ashmun, while 12th Avenue, runs west. I can't say when Marquette was extended eastward to run down the hill, as it does now, but in 1955 it probably only went as far east as John Street. During my elementary school years in the late 1940s, good friends of mine, the McCaffrey twins, lived on Minneapolis Street at about 11th Avenue, and south of them it was all farm fields as I recall--- no Marquette Avenue.
The Iroquois Lodge was built ca. 1952. Our collection of Polk City Directories has a few gaps, but the Iroquois was not in business in 1949, and it was there in 1954, so it was built sometime in between. The owner in 1954 was Catherine Corbett. In 1955, when the photo was taken, the owners were Lynn and Jeanne Lewis.For many years in the 60s and 70s, the owners were Wesley and Barbara Wilton. By 1980 it is shown as "The Bavarian Lodge", operated by William Simon, who also had the Hertz Car Rental business there. In subsequent years, it housed Hantz Financial Services and is now a check cashing business. The building looks very different, but appears to have the same footprint. Walter Materna Collection neg. # 262.1

09/17/2026

At the end of WWII, efforts got underway to form the United Nations Organization. Cities from many nations made bids to have the organization’s home established in their country. Forrmer Michigan Governor Chase S. Osborn of the Sault, always a big-thinker, wanted to win the contest by promoting Sugar Island to be its home. The island, right on the border between Canada and the U.S., had been the object of a protracted dispute over its ownership in the early to mid-1800s, and the peaceful resolution of that dispute in 1842 was a great example of the value of international cooperation. Our border with Canada is the longest unfortified one in the world. He even took to calling Sugar Island “International Island” to emphasize the point, and that name appeared on the formal invitation to the U.N. A delegation of Sault people, including Mayor Maurice Hunt, went to London to pitch the proposal. No one from the island was in that delegation, however. Over twenty places in the U.S., two from Canada (Quebec City and Vancouver), Warsaw, Geneva, and London, plus many other places on the globe submitted bids, as shown in the cartoon. New York City won, of course. I published the two images and a more-detailed account in my book Sugar Island Sampler (1992, still available at CCHS Gift Shop!) and tried unsuccessfully at that time to learn which location came in second in the contest. But International Island had to be one of the more creative proposals.
For those who know a bit about Sugar Island, note that the proposed location of the United Nations Building was about where the Vuori and Ruona farms were in the first half of the 20th century. A tunnel to facilitate traffic between Sault, Michigan and the island was in the proposal, as well as a bridge from the island to Ontario on the old channel. And Lake George has migrated several miles upstream toward the Sault. Credit: both images came from The Evening News, November 13 and 21, 1945.

09/10/2026

These two aerial views of Mission Hill Ski Resort were taken in 1965. The first picture shows the resort hotel, with an outdoor pool, a large parking lot, and we can see Lake Superior and Iroquois Island in the background. The second picture shows the ski hill itself, cleared out of a dense forest.

A Sault News headline from 1957: “Mission Hill Could Be One of Ten Best Ski Runs in the Middle West,” says ski area engineer from Houghton Lake who had recently surveyed the area for the Sports and Recreation Committee of the Sault Chamber of Commerce, chaired by Dr. Hugh Allott. Plans called for “14 ski runs, two rope tows, one T-Bar or chair lift.” The engineer said the area “provides 350 feet of vertical drop.” And plans are “designed for all types of skiiers.” A main advantage of the area is “it should provide a ski season at least five weeks longer than any other place in the Midwest.”

The ski resort opened during the 1959-60 ski season. According to a 1960 article in the Evening News, written by a visitor during the off season, the hotel had “all the comforts any loafing wife could ask for – lovely room, deep carpets, soft lights, wonderful view, . . . and a beautiful dining room with white tablecloths.” And, “The ski lift has chairs that hang down from an overhead rail. You stand on a platform, and the chairs come along behind and nudge you gently behind the knees. Naturally, you sit down and before you can change your mind, you’re riding straight up the side of the mountain.”

Newspaper articles around the time Mission Hill opened touted it as a luxury resort offering plenty of snow for the slopes, easily accessible, due to the (new) Mackinac Bridge. In April of 1963, “Chippewa County’s $600,000 plus year-round resort and ski resort was taken over by the Small Business Administration.” In August of 1964, the SBA auctioned off the property to Port Huron businessman, Ira Carpenter, for a price of $158,000. Newspaper articles from 1964 said Carpenter planned to maintain and reopen the ski resort. This may have been when the name changed to Iroquois Mountain Lodge. At some point, the lodge burned. The Michigan Lost Ski Areas Project website indicates the ski resort closed in 1972. Some information taken from a dedicated page, Memories of Iroquois. I hope our readers can tell us more. (Note added, based on comments: The Mission Hill Ski Resort was located west of Monocle Lake at the site of what is now the West Branch of Bay Mills Community College. You can see this location on the satelite image I posted in one of the comments.) Walter and Carl Materna Collection negs #2099 and 2100. Post by Collette Coullard

09/03/2026

In this aerial photo from the early 1930s we are looking northeast at Sault Ste. Marie, seeing the St. Marys River, separating the Canadian Sault to the north (above) from the Michigan Sault to the south (below).

The power canal shows up well in this picture, as do its Ashmun, Bingham, and Johnstone Street bridges. We can make out the powerhouse, where the power canal meets the river, and we can’t miss the smoke from the carbide plant to the right (east) of the powerhouse. Looking closely, we can spot several prominent churches, including St. Mary’s on Portage, Central Methodist on Spruce, and Presbyterian on Bingham. One of the tallest buildings is the 6-story Adams Building (northwest corner of Ashmun and Spruce).

The prominent white road on the right is Easterday Avenue, which runs past the landmark water tower. Running perpendicular to Easterday past the water tower we can barely make out Ryan Avenue. It must have been very small at that time. Notice how few homes have been built on Ryan by this time.

In the foreground, we see Fort Brady, operating as the U.S. Army’s northern Michigan outpost. The Administration Building was new at that time, sitting at the lower left corner of the prominent field (with the baseball field). All of the buildings to the left of the Administration Building are now gone, having gradually been replaced once the fort became, in 1946, the Sault Branch of Michigan College of Mining and Technology, then in 1966, Lake Superior State College, and in 1987, Lake Superior State University. Many of the fort’s buildings in this picture are still in use at LSSU. Walter and Carl Materna Collection neg. # 1872.1. Post by Collette Coullard

08/27/2026

Post by Chippewa County Historical Society. This unusual picture caught my eye as I browsed our collection for a Throwback Thursday post. It was taken ca. 1940, when our City Hall was on the northwest corner of Arlington and Ashmun. This ice-scultured lion was near the sidewalk in front of the City Hall. The view is looking east across Ashmun from the City Hall lot. The sign on the store across the street reads "Barish Bros.," and that store is still at that location.

Two of our iconic street lamps from that era can be seen.
The city used to hold a Winter Carnival around the time of this picture, and we suspect that is what occasioned the ice sculpture. Did the Lions' Club have a hand in it? Was Metro-Goldwyn Mayer perhaps in town? Or was it the work of a talented fan of the Detroit Lions? Does anybody have other ideas? Walter Materna Collection neg. #1546

08/20/2026

n this picture from about 1960 we are looking north on the east side of Ashmun Street. We can see Ely’s clothing store, Arbuckle (Walgreen) Drugs, and the Sault Savings Bank on this side of the street, and Scott’s and Kresge’s on the west side. It looks to me like Ashmun Street had 2 lanes in each direction, plus on-street parking. And those cars were not small. Community Action Agency Collection neg #6000. Post by Collette Coullard

08/13/2026

Post by Bernie Arbic, Chippewa County Historical Society. We posted this picture in June of 2018 in our Throwback Thursday series. Besides it being a very interesting picture of an iconic Sault Ste. Marie structure under construction, I have an ulterior motive for re-posting it: to announce that the Historical Society will be publishing a second volume of "SaultVenirs" sometime this fall. My co-author, Collette Coullard and I are hard at work now indexing the book, which will contain 72 popular Throwback posts over the years, together with our captions and a few of the comments made by followers. This picture will be on page 16, over the title "Manpower + Horsepower + Steam Power = Powerhouse."

Here is the caption from 2018: "This picture shows the Cloverland Electric Cooperative Powerhouse under construction, looking northeast toward the west end of the building. The facility opened in October of 1902, so this image probably was made in late 1901. The magnificent structure was built with manpower, horse power, and steam power...all three visible in this image, scanned from an 8 by 10 inch glass negative. Chippewa County Historical Society owns about 1,000 such negatives, which document the construction of the power canal and powerhouse between 1898 and 1902 by the Michigan Lake Superior Power Company. "

One of the comments on the 2018 post by a follower, referring to those who worked on the building was this: "I bet they’d be shocked and amazed to know that this building has not only survived, but has continued to thrive over 100 years later!" Indeed! We can be proud of the skill of those who built it, and also of those who continue to maintain it.

Volume II of "SaultVenirs," with 71 more images like this one, should be available in plenty of time for Christmas gift-giving. We'll keep you posted! Anyone living in the area, and even those who have roots here but have moved away will find pictures in the book that bring back memories. (And BTW, Volume I is still available!) Cloverland Electric Cooperative Collection neg. #238

08/06/2026

This picture was taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s, back in the day when we only had full-service gas stations. I believe I can read the gas price is 32 cents a gallon. And just look at that stylish vehicle, with those white sidewalls. They don’t make them like that anymore.

This was Payment’s Zephyr Station, at 901 Ashmun, the southeast corner of Ann Street and Ashmun. Before it was Zephyr, this station was South Side Super Service, and then Dick’s Gulf Service. The building behind the station was Wheatly’s Apartments and also served as a warehouse for Wheatly’s Grocery, which was just south of the Zephyr Station. Today, the gas station is gone, but the apartment building still stands. Gordon Daun Collection #261.1 and #261.2. Post by Collette Coullard

Address

115 Ashmun Street, PO Box 342
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
49783

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

(906) 635-7082

Website

http://www.cchsmi.com/

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