Today we decided to go explore Colonial Michilimackinac. It is the restored remains of the original fort that was moved out to Mackinac Island 1780.
It was originally built by the French in 1715 as a supply depot for fur traders. The French had a great working relationship with the Indians as they understood the Indian culture, respected it and worked within it. During the spring and summer months,
supplies and trade goods would arrive at the fort. Then in the fall and winter, the traders would go out to the Indian villages and trade for furs. The French always gave a gift of some sort before trading would start. It was the Indian way.After the French and Indian war the British took over the fort, along with the French territory of Canada. The British still operated the fort, but as a trading post rather than a supply depot. No more going out to the villages. The Indians were expected to come to the fort. And no more gifts first! It was the king’s way or the highway.
This didn’t sit well with the locals. There were large numbers of Indians at the fort to trade, and they would daily play Lacrosse outside of the fort. One day the ball just happened to enter the fort through the gate. The soldiers didn’t think too much of it as the men kept chasing the ball and seemed to continue the game. Too late, the British had been duped. The Indians killed quite a few soldiers and captured the officers. The fur industry was a huge part of the British economy at this point so the British conceded and they went back to playing by the Indians’ rules.
The fort is still in the process of being restored. This is one of the excavations at present. Like I said earlier, most of the structures were taken apart, hauled to Mackinaw Island and reassembled. But the stone foundations and chimneys remained to give a good indication where things were. Before leaving the fort for good, the soldiers burned what ever was left so the Americans couldn’t use it. One thing that didn’t burn completely was the
powder magazine. All the gun powder had been removed but the magazine was reinforced with heavy earth on the top of it. As the timbers supporting the walls and roof burned, the weight of the earth collapsed the roof and smothered the fire beneath preserving the charred remains of the floor and timbers.
The soil in the fort? Well its not. It is like sand at the beach. What little vegetation grew would have been trampled by people walking around. You drop a coin, a ring or anything at the beach and its gone. Hundreds of items have been sifted from the sand so far. Everything from buttons to coins to thimbles to squiggly silvery things. For the life of me I couldn’t imagine what those grey worm shaped things were. Turns out they were lead pencils. Never would have guessed that. It is a living history museum so you can watch
how things would have been done back in that era. We watched as this lady cooked a blueberry cake in a dutch oven. She arranged hot coals in the fireplace and then covered them with a think layer of ash for insulation. Next she nestled the greased pot in the ashes and then poured the batter in. Put the lid on and added coals on top and covered the coals with ash.
Ross asked how she knew it was done. She said she looks when she thinks it’d done. Makes sense. But since she told us only the men had timepieces, how would she know when to check it. I mean what on Earth could the men be doing that required more accurate timing than baking? She pointed to the wide planks on the floor and told me she didn’t need a timepiece. She had started to cook it when the light shone on one plank and knew to check it when the light was on another plank. The perfect sundial, and way more accurate than any timepiece they had. Women are so clever!
Oh, by the way.The blueberry cake was great.
Enough history. We peddled our trusty, although now rusty, bikes back to the boat. We made one stop along the way at Bell’s Fishery to buy some smoked salmon.
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