Colonial Michilimackinac is home to one of North America’s longest ongoing archeological digs

MACKINAW CITY — Some of Mackinaw City’s most interesting features are not what’s happening there now but what happened there in the past.

Thanks to archeological work conducted by Mackinac State Historic Parks (MSHP), Michigan residents and visitors are getting a close look at what life was like in this part of the world in the 1700s.

Archeological digs began in the old garrison and community known as Colonial Michilimackinac in 1959, in a location that is just west of the Mackinac Bridge in Mackinaw City.

“The garrison and community moved to Mackinac Island between 1779-1781,” said Dr. Lynn Evans, curator of archaeology for MSHP.

Evans started working for MSHP as a seasonal archaeologist in 1989 while a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a curator there since 1996.

“What wasn’t moved to the island was destroyed so that there wouldn’t be anything from the old fort left that could be used to attack the new one,” Evans added. “The location was never forgotten, it was set aside as a city park in the first plat of Mackinaw City in the 1850s and became Michigan’s second state park in 1909. When Dr. Eugene Petersen and the Mackinac Island State Park Commission decided they wanted to reconstruct Michilimackinac, archaeology was seen as a useful tool to augment the documentary record.”

The results since then have been exemplary.

“Over the past 66 years we have excavated and reconstructed about two-thirds of the buildings that were in the fort in the 1770s," Evans said. "These are all open to the public as spaces for live interpretation and demonstrations, museum exhibits and period settings. Archaeology has provided data on building location, construction methods, activity areas and material culture.”

With every dig, answers are uncovered. According to Evans, their work has enabled MSHP to document how people lived, interacted and survived in the region. For example, archeology has informed the public about lifestyle differences between French and British colonists.

“Up to a point, the French and British tried to maintain their own culture on the frontier, so you see a few differences in ceramic assemblages and the like,” said Evans.

It gets even more detailed than that. Archeological work has even shown differences in decision-making in households that existed 300 years ago, with those differences being traceable to cultural proclivities from one household to the next.

“The French Canadians were more likely to marry local Odawa and Ojibwa women and have blended cultural households,” Evans said. “This shows up, especially in diet, with these households relying more on locally available plants and animals. Conversely, the British preferred imported domesticates. The caveat to all of this, of course, is that economic status determines some of it. You have to be able to afford what you want in order to consume it.”

Some of the most critical archeological work at the garrison and community has been to find how trade was conducted there, as the Straits Area was one of the most critical trading centers in the Great Lakes region for much of the 1700s and beyond.

Excavated items from all corners of the world came to Michilimackinac.

“The most far-traveled artifact we find is Chinese export porcelain," Evans said. "In the house we are currently excavating we have found ceramics and scale weights from what is now Germany and a clay pipe from the Netherlands. Many of the glass beads we find were imported from Bohemia.”

Though plates from China and weights from Germany are exciting finds, Evans noted that the finds serve the purpose of informing the public about not just the exciting moments in history, but the every day and the ordinary.

“Archaeology gives us insight into the mundane activities of daily life that didn’t get recorded in the military, church and business records which make up the bulk of the historic record,” she said. “Archaeology helps us understand how people from different cultures interacted with each other and coped with the challenges and pleasures of living at the Tip of the Mitt.”

Many of the findings produced by Evans and her archeology team tell of colonial life, but their work has also provided details of Indigenous life in the region.

“Most of the Anishnaabek in the Straits Area lived in villages on protected bays, such as what is now Marquette Park on Mackinac Island. A settlement stretching over a thousand years has been excavated there. In 1742, the Odawa, who lived near Michilimackinac, moved down the Lake Michigan coast to L’Arbre Croche (Cross Village).”

Though those were the predominant Native American settlements at the time, Anishnaabek peoples lived within the walls of Michilimackinac, too.

“They lived there in various statuses ranging from Elizabeth Mitchell, the Ojibwa wife of Surgeon’s Mate David Mitchell, a successful trader in her own right, to enslaved people from tribes further to the west,” said Evans. “Identifying the archaeological presence of Anishnaabek women and enslaved persons are both questions we are actively working on.”

Archeologists can learn much about how people lived in the past by the artifacts uncovered at Michilimackinac. But just as important, if not more so, are the buildings archeologists excavate while looking for artifacts.

“Our current project is a house that belonged to traders, first a French trader, Charles Gonneville, and later a man identified on a map as an ‘English trader,’” said Evans.

Evans and her team have learned more about the site as the dig has progressed.

“One of the unusual things about this house is that it had two cellars,” Evans said. “We are currently working on the central cellar and uncovering fragments of the wood wall planks. We completed excavating the cellar in the southeast corner of the house by excavating and removing floorboards and wall planks. We’re also excavating the remains of the north wall, which survives as a strip of brown loamy sand with clay and char cutting through gold sand. Several original cellars, a fireplace and the original well have been excavated and are visible in the reconstructed buildings.”

Unearthing a building shows how people lived, their challenges and what tools and technology they used to survive on the frontier.

“Our most intact original structure is the powder magazine,” Evans said. “It was built partially underground to contain any potential explosions, so it could not be moved. It was set on fire to destroy it. The walls collapsed, the sod roof caved in and did just what it was designed to do, put out the fire. The floor, walls and staircase were excavated in 1974-1975 and preserved as an exhibit.”

Colonial Michilimackinac is an important Michigan park because it gives visitors a glimpse into the past and produces findings that would have otherwise been left out of the historical record. According to Evans, archeological work is essential to giving visitors that glimpse. The work connects the threads of history and provides context and answers for aspects of colonial life that are not well understood.

“Our archaeological site is located in the middle of Colonial Michilimackinac, just south of the parade ground within the palisade walls,” Evans said. “We will be on site every day from opening until 5 p.m., weather permitting, through Aug. 17. Visitors can watch the process and ask the archaeologists questions. The archaeological excavation at Michilimackinac is one of the longest ongoing projects of its kind in North America and it’s right here in Northern Michigan where you can visit!”

Ren Brabenec is a Brimley-based freelance writer and journalist with The Sault News. He reports on politics, local issues, environmental stories, and the economy. For questions, comments, or to suggest a story, email hello@renbrabenec.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Colonial Michilimackinac is home to one of North America’s longest ongoing archeological digs