Archaeological Completion Report Series, Number 12
From the book: “The Provision Storehouse at Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island … was excavated as part of the Bicentennial celebration [1981] … The project was a preliminary investigation of a very large building.
The Provisions Storehouse was built originally by the British at Fort Michilimackinac and was moved to Mackinac Island in 1780-1781. During the subsequent American period, after 1796, it served multiple purposes at the site, including that of post hospital while Dr. William Beaumont began his research on human digestion. The building was replaced by a new hospital structure on part of the same foundation in 1827. That building burned within six months and was replaced in 1828 by a new hospital which still stands on the site.
The archaeological evidence is summarized in terms of eight major stratigraphic periods which have been correlated with the history of the site.
Inter-site comparisons with Fort Michilimackinac confirm the predicted differences between the sites. Trade materials are rare in the Provision Storehouse assemblage, which can be explained by the separation of the military and trading communities on Mackinac Island. The relative frequencies of artifact groups in the Storehouse assemblage is unlike that of the Carolina, Frontier, and Early Fur Trade patterns.
Artifact group frequencies are used to investigate intra-site activities at the Storehouse in a framework of chronological changes in the use of the building. Refuse patterns are described. Some preliminary observations on subsistence patterns are presented.”
“This publication is a fine addition to the impressive publication series of the Mackinac State Historic Parks.” – Gordon L. Groscup American Antiquity
