Education Outreach Brings History to Life Posted February 28, 2020 Presenting a program at the Gros Cap School near St. Ignace. Our historic sites may be closed for another two months, but right now small teams of interpreters are traveling around the state to bring Mackinac’s history to life in elementary school classrooms. Since its creation, the Historic Mackinac on Tour program has visited schools and presented to nearly 250,000 students. (more…)
Preparing for the Season Posted May 31, 2019 The site (between the barrels) buried under several feet of snow. After the spring melt. Ready to excavate. Spring has sprung in the Straits of Mackinac region, and with spring comes the preparation for another archaeological field season. Regular blog readers will remember that at the end of last season we lined the site with heavy plastic sheeting and bales of straw. The long snowy winter was very good for preventing the wall from slumping too much. When we removed the straw and plastic last week, the site was in fairly good condition. (more…)
Wild Game at French Michilimackinac Posted November 15, 2018 Photo courtesy LeeAnn Ewer. Hunters across the state will take to the woods for opening day of Michigan’s firearm deer season today. Some will bring home the big buck and venison to add variety to mealtimes. It’s easy to imagine the 18th century French Canadian residents of Michilimackinac doing much the same thing, relying upon hunting and fishing to load their tables with a wealth of wild game. However, like many so many other things, Michilimackinac’s historic food culture is considerably more complex. (more…)
Mid-Season Archaeology Review Posted July 19, 2018 Knife found in the root cellar. We are just past the midpoint of the archaeological field season at Colonial Michilimackinac. It has been exciting so far! (more…)
A New Season Posted June 1, 2018 Site almost ready to begin excavation for the season The end of May brings rain, flowers, insects, and archaeology. While next year will be the 60th anniversary of archaeology at Michilimackinac, this year is the 60th season. We will be back for our eleventh season of excavation at House E of the Southeast Rowhouse. Over the past eleven summers we have excavated the south wall, a root cellar, and chimney collapse, and found thousands of artifacts used by the fur traders who lived here. Highlights can be seen in previous blog posts, and include many types of ceramics, personal adornment items such as cufflinks, buttons and rings, an intact rosary, an intact pocket knife, and two shutter hinges. This summer we plan to excavate deeper in the cellar and expose more of the interior wall exposed last summer. Nail, straight pin, and window glass recovered from slump Over the past week, we have removed the straw and plastic that protected the site over the winter, re-established the grid strings we use to map the site, and cleaned up dirt that slumped from the wall of the excavation pit during the winter. Excavation will be taking place seven days a week, weather permitting, from June 5 through August 25. Admission to Colonial Michilimackinac includes the opportunity to watch history being discovered.
Canoes Posted April 6, 2018 Today, thousands of people travel to the Straits of Mackinac every summer, most of them by car. Similar numbers of people came to this area in the 18th century, but traveled in a very different vehicle, a birch bark canoe. (more…)
What’s on the Other Side of the Lake? Green Bay! Posted March 24, 2017 A combined British-Native force from Fort Edward Augustus helped diffuse tensions at Michilimackinac following the attack of 1763. Courtesy of British Library. You may be aware of Mackinac’s connection to cities like Detroit and Montreal, but many other communities can also trace a historic connection back to the straits. One such city is Green Bay, Wisconsin, which will be celebrating several important milestones in 2017. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Fort Howard, built by American troops, and the 300th anniversary of the colonial French Fort La Baye. Both posts were located in present-day Green Bay and had ties to Mackinac. By the 1600s both Mackinac and Green Bay were part of French Canada, and both deeply linked to the fur trade. The majority of the fur trade that went west from Michilimackinac headed to Green Bay. Green Bay’s Fox River was a main artery for reaching the Mississippi River and trading grounds in central Wisconsin and Minnesota. As a result of the first Fox War (1712-1716), the French established Fort La Baye to protect this vital trade route. Many of the French soldiers who built and later garrisoned La Baye were sent from Fort Michilimackinac, which was built around 1715. (more…)
