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

Chippewa County Historical Society

Name: Chippewa County Historical Society
Address: 115 Ashmun Street, PO Box 342, Sault Ste. Marie, MI, 49783, US
Telephone: (906) 635-7082
Price range: $$

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Chippewa County Historical Society

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]

05/28/2026

Posted for Chippewa County Historical Society by Bernie Arbic. When the power canal and powerhouse, now owned by the Cloverland Electric Cooperative were built between 1898 and 1902, the project turned the northern part of the city of Sault Ste. Marie into an island, bounded on the north by the St. Marys River and on the south by the canal. Six bridges were built to connect the island part to the rest of the city. They all looked much the same, and older residents will probably remember the way they looked, since some of them weren't replaced until the 1970s. But the Ashmun Bridge was replaced much earlier, in 1935, with help from both the Michigan State Highway Department and the federal government.

The new and much wider bridge opened for general traffic in early July of 1935, and a huge parade July 4th celebrated both Independence Day and the opening of the new bridge. It was probably largest parade that had ever been held in the Sault up to that time, reportedly stretching for two miles. Participants included Native Americans, local farmers with various farm implements, mule-drawn wagons from Fort Brady, several bands, fire engines, State Highway snowplows, floats from area businesses, Boy Scout troops, and much more. Robertson's Laundry sponsored a contest for area youths to decorate their bicycles and ride in the parade, offering three cash prizes for the best-decorated bike. This picture shows some of the kids, riding five-abreast. The view is looking north from near the center of the bridge. The original Ashmun Bridge, literally built in the horse-and-buggy days, was in use for 35 years---made obsolete by the rise of automobile traffic. The new bridge, still in use today, has served for 91 years so far. Walter Materna Collection, neg. # 705.1

05/21/2026

This picture from the 1950s (correction: 1960s, based on one of the cars, thanks!) shows the north half of the east side of the 300 block of Ashmun. This was some twenty years after the picture of JC Penney we featured two weeks ago, where Gambles replaced Penney’s (and was later the Back Door, and is now Three-One-Three).

One of our readers asked about the building just to the north of 313, at 309-311. That building just north of Gambles was the Price-Harrison building, built by Fred R. Price and Harry A. Harrison in 1896. Built using “only home labor” from sandstone quarried during lock construction, it was divided into two stores on the main floor, office rooms on the second floor, and a “first-class lodge room” on the third floor (according to a Sault newspaper at the time).

Price was a druggist and Harrison a jeweler. Early tenants in the office space included McDonald and Chapman, J.W. Shine, ESB Sutton, Justice A. Macdonell, and W.B. Cady. The third floor was occupied by the Knights of the Maccabee Lodge.

Over the years, the stores were occupied by Harrison Jewelry, The Wonder Store Dry Goods, Bruhn Hardware Hank’s Hardware, and Western Union Telegraph.

Just north of the Price-Harrison building, in the building with the arched windows, was City News, which also sold souvenirs and fishing tackle, and Shores Bar. To its north was Rudell Drugs. Its second floor with the bay window was the Materna photography studio.

1974 was the tail end of the national urban renewal program, which gave municipalities grants for redeveloping blighted areas. The Price-Harrison building, along with the two buildings between it and Maple Street, were demolished that year. Newspaper articles quoted Paul Quinn, the local Urban Renewal Commission Chair, as saying the space would be developed into retail shops and outlets. Those plans must have fallen through, as it has been a parking lot since.

Materna Collection neg #855.3 Post by Collette Coullard and Deidre Stevens.

05/14/2026

Posted for Chippewa County Historical Society by Bernie Arbic. We post this composite of two pictures of the "Schoolcraft House" in part as a recruitment effort. The "Historic Homes" on Water Street are open for visitors during the tourist season, and there is always a need for local "docents" to talk to the visitors and share information about our history. Please see the information in the other image we post this week. You might find the experience of being a docent to be very enjoyable.

The Schoolcraft House, known as "Elmwood," was built in the Sault as an Indian Agency office, as well as a residence, by Henry Schoolcraft in 1827. (So next year will be its BICENTENNIAL!!) When the power canal was excavated ca. 1900, it passed just upriver of Elmwood. The structure was at that original location until 1979. At that time, it was moved to its current location on Water Street, near the Valley Camp Freighter and Museum. Because the large house couldn't be taken across the Portage Avenue Bridge, it had to be placed on a barge and hauled upriver in the moving process. The river has always been a highway around here!

The image in the lower right was taken in 1979 when Elmwood had been partially dismantled, and raised up on blocks, being prepared for loading onto a truck to move it to the barge. I took the image in the upper right on May 12, 2026. It shows the reconstructed house at its current location, next to the even older "Johnston House." Both structures are part of the "Historic Homes" on Water Street. Walter Materna Collection Image #813.2

05/07/2026

This picture of the building at 313 Ashmun Street is from the 1930s. I have to admit that I didn’t know J.C. Penney had been in there. I believe the building was built in the late 1800s by Blumrosen & Co., to house on its main floor, a clothing store. J.C. Penney went in in the 1920s and stayed until 1947. Part of that time, the shoe store Passmore & Paquin shared the building. The Knights of Columbus also occupied part of the building during that period, as did Physician Stanley Vegors and the U.S.O.

After J.C. Penney moved out, the building housed the Gambles department store, from 1949 to 1966. After Gambles left, the next 50 years saw the building house a Youth Center, Putters’ Paradise, the Red Light Night Club, the Back Door Bar and Entertainment venue(that was during my young adulthood, and they booked some good bands, some will recall), and the Max Out Gym. Since 2016, the remodeled building now houses the upscale Three-One-Three establishment. For a while, it was a bar and dance club, and now it is an event space to rent for special occasions.

Gordon Daun Collection . Post by Collette Coullard

04/30/2026

Posted by Bernie Arbic of the Chippewa County Historical Society. This unusual photo shows a ferry for the service to Sugar Island being built on the shore of the St. Marys River ca. 1940. The exact location, in fact, is captured by the presence of the U.S. Coast Guard Lookout Station #3, which shows up in the distance, above the ferry deck, on the left. That station was at the upstream end of the island we now call Rotary Island, not far from the Sugar Island Ferry Dock on the mainland side of the river. It was decommissioned and intentionally burned in 1976. So the land just across the narrow stretch of water behind the ferry is Rotary Island and probably a piece of Steere Island as well.

We are pretty sure that the ferry under construction was given the name "Chippewa," and that it was being built for a man named E.E. Peterman. That ferry was rebuilt (probably enlarged) in 1944, after which it had a displacement of 26 tons. The piece of equipment near the right edge of the photo is some sort of welding apparatus. It is worth noting that part of the water showing behind the ferry now forms the Kids' Fishing Pond, and this piece of shoreline was, in the mid-1800s, a part of the Methodist Mission property. Walter Materna Collection, neg. #38

04/23/2026

This picture from the 1970s shows a dear old friend which for us old timers was synonymous with summer in the Sault, when the sound of the Soo Tour Train driver narrating the sights was a familiar backdrop. We think the Soo Tour Train was started in the mid-1960s by Jack Babcock and was later owned by Gerald Bell. By the end of the 1990s, the Soo Tour Train was owned by Jim Majic. Maybe one of our readers can tell us how long it ran after that.

The picture also features Old Town, at 339 West Portage, across from the Soo Locks Visitor Center. Old Town was built in 1968, located where the historic home of George Brown had been razed. Owned by Roy and Blanche Askwith and later by their son Ted and his wife Carol Askwith, Old Town featured a rustic look, complete with wooden sidewalks. Over the next 30-or-so years, it housed establishments like the Root Beer Saloon, the Old Town Souvenir Shop, Bakery Shop, Fudgies, and Country Store, the Shirt Shack, Blue Daffodil Jewelry, Michelle’s Gift Shop, the Shirt Shack, the Shirt Boutique, the Stage Coach, Moc’s Shop, and Circus O’ Flavors Ice Cream. I don’t know what all has been in there since the 1990s, but now the place looks well maintained, is painted yellow and white, and houses Yooper Trading Company and Soo Locks Gift Gallery.

Gordon Daun Collection . Post by Collette Coullard

04/16/2026

Posted by Bernie Arbic of the Chippewa County Historical Society. What does President Dwight Eisenhower have to do with Chippewa County history you ask? Well, the reason for this picture is because the man sitting beside Ike is Dr. Lee Alvin DuBridge……a very notable Sault High Alum. He graduated from Sault High School in 1918, having attended grades seven through twelve in the Sault. In the high school yearbook Su-Hi for 1918, beside his picture it says, among other things, that he "hopes to become a scientist." He certainly fulfilled that hope!
This photo from 1953 shows DuBridge with some other members of the president's Science Advisory Committee, gathered around Eisenhower. DuBridge was chairman of that committee for several years; he had been science advisor to President Truman before that, and later was science advisor for President Nixon. He served as president of the California Institute of Technology (one of the world's top universities in science) from 1946 to 1969.
I post this to promote a presentation about Dr. DuBridge that I will be giving next week. So, as a teaser, I won't mention in this post what he did during the years 1940 to 1945, other than to say he led an agency at M.I.T. that achieved results one historian of science ranked on a par with the Manhattan Project of the same era. The program will follow a brief meeting of the Chippewa County Historical Society at the Bayliss Public Library Community Room at 6 PM,Thursday, April 23. It is free and open to the public. I hope you will consider attending. Photo Courtesy of Caltech Archives and Special Collections.

04/09/2026

As the sign on the right wall says, this is the Maple Street face of Soo Machine and Auto, in the early 1930s. Looking closely, we see a gas pump on the sidewalk in front of the building. I imagine our grandparents pulling up to the curb to fill the tank of their first automobile.

Soo Machine and Engine Works Company moved from Arlington Street to their new location at 128 Portage in 1912, and with the move they changed their name to Soo Machine and Auto. “Owing to the increasing business of the company and the gradual increase in the “automobile craze” in the city, such a building was found necessary,” according to an Evening News article at the time. In 1920, they expanded that building all the way to Maple Street, as shown in this picture. This newly expanded facility was reportedly the first in the area equipped with an automatic sprinkler system, in case of fire. At that time, the business was owned by Roy Hollingsworth.

In 1954, the Portage Avenue half of the building was sold to Roy Lynn and became Lynn Auto Parts, Inc. Soo Machine and Auto remained in the Maple Avenue half and in 1965 was renamed to Hollingsworth Auto Sales, Inc. In 1968, Hollingsworth Auto moved out to I-75 Business Spur, and Lynn’s bought and expanded into the building in this picture.

Currently, the building pictured here houses Precision Automotive. The facade is simpler now, without the striking staircase look of years gone by.

Materna Collection neg #8009, post by Collette Coullard.

04/02/2026

This ad from a 1955 issue of the Evening News features the Toonerville Trolley. Passengers would board a 4-car train in Soo Junction and ride it through the woods to the Tahquamenon River. There they boarded the riverboat the Betty B (or later either the Tahquamenon or Paul Bunyan) and road it 21 miles to the rapids above the Tahquamenon Falls. From there, they took a short hike to view the falls.

The Toonerville Trolley was started in 1928 by Captain Joe Beach, a conservation officer, and Robert Hunter, a lumberman. At that time, there were no roads to the falls, so this was the main means for visiting that remote site. Beach’s son R.J. took the business over after his father’s death and then in the 1980s passed it on to Hunter’s great-grandson, Captain Kris Stewart and his family. When the Stewarts were ready to retire, they could not find someone to carry on the business, and so the Toonerville Trolly took its final ride in 2024.

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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