Sault Saint Marie, Ontario An Analysis - 767 Words

From an outsider’s perspective, the city of Sault Saint Marie, Ontario is not one that initially appears as being beautiful. As a result of the Algoma Steel Plant (the town’s primary industry), a pervasive scent of tar often paves the air and so, coats the lungs in the burning by-products of melted rubber. The persistence of long, harsh winters, courtesy of residing in the â€Å"True North† and along the banks of Lake Superior—where wind and water gush like spilled arteries over the land and sky—means that much of the Sault’s infrastructure has likewise melted with the frequent snowfall. This is prevalent in the sidewalks and roads which are in many places cracked, or in the process of doing so; they are like fissured wounds of asphalt that†¦show more content†¦Outcroppings of Pine and Birch shifted in the unrelenting wind as if they were the scales on the bodies of primordial dragons attempting to settle their massive forms into the damp ground beneath them. An endless horizon of white edged waves bit at the tails of one another in a crashing cacophony until they foamed, frothed and broke against the shore. Moving along the beach, I noticed a variety of vibrant rocks clustered together like bright patches of nebula against the darkened pitch of sand. Here was a crater of red, there, multiple rings of green set into a granite base, and even farther away there were whole galaxies of stone dusted in slices of quartz and coarse iron. Soon the rising and falling rush of water in my ears was accompanied by the gentle clacking sound of small, mineral galaxies colliding against one another in the confines of my palms. It was as we were preparing to leave that a final rock flashed across my peripheral. As if by some unseen cosmic force, I found myself reeling with the efforts to unearth it. Unlike the others already in my possession, this rock had a dull and rough exterior. Maybe, I was now realizing, it was much the same as the Sault Saint Marie I had always been so quick to scorn. Just like the city, the rock was unattractive, even unassuming, but it was vast upon further consideration. It was a fractal display of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen hidden below a mound of layers. These were the same four elements that made