Many visitors to the Straits of Mackinac today bring their four-legged friends with them. It’s not unusual to see any number of pets out with their owners in Marquette Park on Mackinac Island or strolling along the shoreline in Michilimackinac State Park.
Pets were an important part of historic Mackinac as well. The Marshall family kept large collies at the Old Mackinac Point Light Station when George Marshall served as the keeper. His nephew Chester recalled mornings waking up to the sound of Flora, Tatty, and Reno barking as breakfast was cooked around 1910. Dogs played an important role at Fort Mackinac as well, serving as companions and friends to the men stationed there. Several historic photos from the 1870s and 1880s show soldiers relaxing with a variety of dogs. In 1836, traveling writer Harriet Martineau noted that a dog followed Captain John Clitz down the ramp from Fort Mackinac as he came to meet her boat.
Although many historic Mackinac residents owned pets, few could match the DePeysters of Michilimackinac in the variety and number of animals they kept as companions. During the period Arent DePeyster served as the British commander of Michilimackinac (1774-79), his wife Rebecca had a pet chipmunk named Tim. At other times, the DePeysters variously had a pet swan, two different spaniels named Dapper, a Newfoundland dog named Towzer, and a parrot. The parrot, presented to Rebecca by Lieutenant Isaac Brock (of War of 1812 fame), could speak and regularly issued commands to the soldiers.
