Remember This? It had a clock and a beaver on top

From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:

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Remember This: Rotary Arch – A warm welcome awaits visitors to Sault Ste. Marie!

St. Mary’s River separates our city from our nearest neighbour to the south, our twin city Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.  For many years the most popular way to visit our neighbours was to take a ferry.

The Ferry Dock was located at the site of the current City Hall and the first thing visitors would see after disembarking was the Rotary Welcome Cairns.  Built in 1938 the Rotary Arch was the international gateway for the city of Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma region.  The two cairns on either side of current Russ Ramsay Way are made of red sandstone, which was used extensively in much of the early construction of the city.  Spanning the roadway was a steel arch which symbolized the importance of the steel industry in the early development of Sault Ste. Marie.

The Rotary Club sponsored a city-wide contest to come up with a design for the archway.  The ultimate winning design was submitted by John Arthur Luxton.  This was not the first winning design that John Luxton had created.  He was well-known in the community for his designs, having already created the original Sault Star’s wolf logo and Algoma Steel’s “A”.

The arch had “Sault Ste. Marie Algoma’s Friendliest City” written on it with the O in Algoma removed and the Rotary symbol placed inside it with a clock and beaver on top.  The arch was constructed and donated by Algoma Steel Inc., however many other companies contributed to the arch as well including: North Foundry & Machine Shop, Sault Structural Steel Company, Lyons Fuel, Hardware & Supplies, International Transit Company, Abitibi Pulp & Paper Company, Sinclair Investments Limited, District Services Limited, Algoma Central & Hudson Bay Railway, Thayer Lumber Company and A.B. Maclean & Sons.

The Rotary Arch became one of the most photographed tourist attractions in the city.  It is significant then that one of the highest selling postcards for the city featured a picture of the Rotary Arch.  

The completion of the International Bridge in 1964, while exciting it also meant the end of the Ferry Dock operations.  The steel arch was removed but fortunately the decision was made to leave the two cairns in place.  In the years that followed many people may have questioned the purpose of these two stone pillars (or cairns) that remained at the base of Brock Street but it wouldn’t be until 2011 that Essar Steel would donate the funds to have the original arch replicated and erected.  The Rotary Arch has once again become a popular image made particularly poignant with the presence of the international flags lining the street leading to City Hall.  

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Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provides SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here