The Changing Seasons at the Straits Posted December 6, 2019 The sawmill at Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park in winter. There always seems to be changes this time of year – for the parks, the locals and the wildlife. After another exciting and busy season, we have closed our historic sites on Mackinac Island and in and around Mackinaw City for the winter. The end of the season doesn’t mean things stop at the Mackinac State Historic Parks. We continue our mission by shifting our focus to new projects and the off-season work of preparing for the next year. As the local human population levels drop for the upcoming winter, the resident wildlife undertake a variety of changes in order to survive the cold and snow that will soon arrive. Migration, hibernation and seasonal adaptations are important tools that wildlife use to help them get through the winter months. (more…)
Support Mackinac Associates on Giving Tuesday Posted November 29, 2019 Mackinac Associates’ mission is simple and encompassing: Friends Preserving and Sharing Mackinac’s Heritage. Mackinac Associates is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports programs at Mackinac State Historic Parks through membership dues and other gifts. Mackinac Associates has supported needed projects in every area of museum operation, and make possible interpretive programs, publications, exhibits, natural history education, park improvements and more. (more…)
The Company of Fort Mackinac Descendants Posted November 22, 2019 Fort Mackinac ca. late 1890s Genealogy, the study and tracing of one’s lines of descent or ancestry, has become increasingly popular in recent years. Document-rich sites like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and MyHeritage.com, contain billions of records that help individuals discover their family roots. The resources created to serve genealogists are extremely useful to professional historians looking to learn more about the human history of their fields of research. In writing The Soldiers of Fort Mackinac, An Illustrated History, Phil Porter, Mackinac State Historic Parks Director, spent countless hours on Ancestry.com looking for information about the men who served at the island fort. (more…)
Privy Addition at Old Mackinac Point Posted August 30, 2019 Restoring a historic site to its original appearance is usually an ongoing activity. At the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, restoration has been underway since 2004 to return the station buildings and grounds to the way they looked just over a century ago. This summer, another small historic addition appeared at the lighthouse that you may not have noticed. Attached to the back of the station barn, you can now see a reconstructed privy cleanout, which allowed the keepers to maintain the privy located in the barn between 1892 and 1928. (more…)
Friends Preserving and Sharing Mackinac’s History Posted April 12, 2019 Fort Holmes, reopened in 2015. Mackinac Associates’ mission is simple and encompassing: Friends Preserving and Sharing Mackinac’s Heritage. Mackinac Associates is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports programs at Mackinac State Historic Parks through membership dues and other gifts. Mackinac Associates members have supported needed projects in every area of museum operation, and make possible interpretive programs, publications, exhibits, natural history education, park improvements and more. (more…)
Forts Mackinac and Holmes in 1815 Posted January 25, 2019 Captain Charles Gratiot, an American engineer officer, sketched both forts on Mackinac Island during the summer of 1814. Fort Holmes, here named Fort George by the British, was nearing completion when Gratiot made this sketch. National Archives At Mackinac State Historic Parks, we are fortunate to have a huge variety of historic information available to help us protect, preserve, and present the resources under our care. Our archives and artifact collections contain numerous descriptions and depictions of the historic sites we manage, providing unique snapshots in time. A great example of these descriptive works is a report written by Lt. Col. Talbot Chambers in September 1815, soon after American troops returned to Mackinac Island following the War of 1812. (more…)
From the Archives: Sunday School Minute Book Posted November 9, 2018 Mackinaw Mission Sunday School Minute Book, 1825 1955.217.1 Donated by Austin G. Packard Mackinac States Historic Parks archival collections preserves thousands of items documenting all aspects of Mackinac history. In this ongoing series we highlight some of these treasures. (more…)
The Fresnel Lens Posted August 31, 2018 One of the plano-convex lenses that make up Old Mackinac Point’s original lens. These simple lenses, sometimes called bullseyes, could be grouped together to project multiple beams of light. Fresnel lenses served as the heart of lighthouses around the world, including at Old Mackinac Point. Invented by French scientist Augustin-Jean Fresnel in 1819, these brass and glass beehives bent, magnified, and focused light to project brilliant beams for miles. (more…)
The Fort Mackinac Never Sweats and Vintage Base Ball Posted July 21, 2018 “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. –Terrence Mann – “Field of Dreams” The large, grassy field behind Fort Mackinac has served many purposes since the end of the Civil War. It has been a drill field for soldiers, a playground for scouts, and a great place to canter a horse. But the one constant on that field for nearly a century and a half has been baseball. Fort Mackinac soldiers established the first ball field on this site in the 1870s and continued to develop and improve the field until the fort closed in 1895. Local residents and summer workers played baseball at the “fort ball grounds” in the early 20th century. Since 1934, when Civilian Conservation Corps workers built the nearby scout barracks, boy and girl scout troops from across Michigan have played ball on the same field during the summer months. (more…)
A Peek Into The Past: The Pratt Photo Album Posted February 16, 2018 Companies E and K, 23rd Infantry, at Fort Mackinac, 1886 Mackinac State Historic Parks is fortunate to have an ever-expanding collection of original objects related to the sites we preserve and interpret. These objects help us share the many stories of Mackinac with our visitors. One of the more unique pieces in the collection is an original photo album and scrapbook assembled by Edward Pratt, a U.S. Army officer who served at Fort Mackinac and several other stations around the world at the end of the 19th century. (more…)
