Sault Ste Marie, Ont, City, seat of Algoma district, pop 74 566 (2001c), 80 054 (1996c), 81 476 (1991c), 80 905 (1986c), area 223.45 km2, inc as town in 1887 and as a city in 1912, is located adjacent to the rapids of the ST MARY'S RIVER between Lakes SUPERIOR and HURON. Across the river is the American city of the same name. The Algonquian tribes who originally occupied the site called it Bawating ("place of the rapids") and valued it for its control of the upper Great Lakes water routes and as a source of abundant whitefish and maple sugar. It is popularly called "the Sault," or "Soo."