Day Trip

Today I treated myself to a day trip to Mackinaw City, 90 miles north of Presque Isle.  The two hours drive along Lake Huron is scenic, and I encountered very little traffic on US-23.

My first stop was the McGulpin Point Lighthouse.  After a century under private ownership, the light was acquired by a preservation group.  Full restoration will take several decades.  The tower offers a nice view of the Mackinac Bridge.

Then I went to Fort Michilimackinac, Michigan's second oldest state park.  This facility, sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan just west of the Bridge, is a reconstruction of the British fort which stood here about the time of the American Revolution.

Three flags have flown over the Fort —
British, French, and American.

A girl looks out from a window in one of the Fort's blockhouses.

Like so many historic sites, the park has staff who recreate some of the people you might have met here in the 1770s.  And this weekend the park played host to a large group of reenactors from Southeastern Michigan who recreate a company of British soldiers of the 1700s.  All were very informative and helpful.

The British lived in very spartan digs.  Being a soldier in the
American "outback" was not an easy life.

This young lady cooks up a pot of chicken and vegetables.

The docent in the fur trader's office explains how beaver pelts were
shipped to Europe to make fashionable felt hats.

Brandon, one of the soldier reenactors, told me his heavy
wool jacket was great in the fall, but not in 90-degree weather.

Brandon explains details of his uniform to visitors from Ohio.

Brandon and Jim demonstrate loading and firing the muskets.

This was a sentimental journey, at least in part.  Back in the early 1970s I worked with a group in Williamston, east of Lansing, to keep an old building on the town's main intersection from being replaced with a gas station.  The effort was led by Victor Hogg, an archaeologist at Michigan State University.  Vic, now deceased, was a most effective advocate for intelligent urban development.  He figured that putting a gas station on the town's most visible intersection was downright dumb.  So, for the benefit of the city fathers, he waxed eloquent about the historical importance of this 3-story brick pile, which he claimed was an rare example of "Etruscan Italianate" architecture.  They bought it — Vic's line, not the building — and the brick pile still stands.

Vic was also one of the early archaeologists who worked on the Michilimackinac site.  Jim, one of the reenactors, has been on staff at the Fort for over 30 years and well remembered Vic.  He told me that Vic's son Chris worked at the fort for several years and remains involved with the park even today.  I'm sure Vic would be delighted to know that digs are still conducted at the Fort — the most recent this summer — more than half a century after excavation first began.

Jim explains the loading process for the Fort's canon...

...Brandon uses a flint to light the canon's fuse...

...and then, "BOOM!"  

Altogether, a very pleasant day! •••