SAINT IGNACE

city, seat (1882) of Mackinac county, southeastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. It lies on the Straits of Mackinac opposite Mackinaw City, with which it is linked southward by the 5-mile (8-kilometre) Mackinac Bridge. One of Michigan's oldest cities, Saint Ignace was founded in 1671 when Jacques Marquette established a mission there named for St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. The missionary activities were protected by a French garrison, Fort de Buade (1681), also known as Fort Michilimackinac (a name later applied to forts at Mackinaw City and on Mackinac Island). Fur traders and fishermen then settled the site, and railroad service across the straits was inaugurated in 1881. Iron smelting and lumbering industries developed in the locality but declined by the turn of the century. The city's economy is now sustained by dairying, truck and fruit farming, fisheries, and the summer tourist trade (which includes frequent ferry service to Mackinac Island). Marquette is buried in Saint Ignace, and Straits State Park and the Chippewa Totem Village are nearby. Inc. village, 1882; city, 1883. Pop. (1990) 2,568.