Historic Mackinac

Let’s Try This Again

lcbrisson — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:54:24 +0000

It’s been quite awhile since I posted anything here, and even before that posts were sporadic.

I started this blog because I wanted an excuse to write about Mackinac history. But the thing about history is that unless you are immersed in it, it is hard to talk about on a regular basis. After starting the blog, too many other projects demanded my attention and didn’t give me a chance to stay engaged enough to write. But my intention this year is to reactivate this blog and post on a regular basis.

I love Mackinac history.

The first time I learned about Mackinac Island was when I was working at Historic Fort Snelling in Minnesota.

When I worked at Fort Snelling I loved talking about food and giving cooking demonstrations. This was my favorite place to work- the Commanding Offier's Quarters.

As a historic interpreter (tour guide) I had to take a test to prove my general knowledge of the site’s history before I could start work. But after that I had to study other materials and take tests to talk about more specific subjects. The fur trade manual was one of my favorites and discussed not only the trade in the Mississippi River area, but the whole Great Lakes region. It was there that I first heard of Mackinac Island as the location of the headquarters of the American Fur Company (AFC). In the 1820’s, the time period we talked about at Fort Snelling, the AFC was quite influential in the area. Mackinac Island was so important that we had to tell how to get from one to the other on the fur trade test.

In case you are wondering, to get from Mackinac Island to Fort Snelling in 1827 you sailed to Green Bay and then went “up the Fox (River), down the Wisconsin (River) to Prairie du Chien and up the Mississippi” in a canoe. We even had hand motions we used to memorize it.

You can imagine, perhaps, how excited I was to actually come to work at Mackinac several years later. It is much easier to appreciate the broad influence of the island in the Great Lakes fur trade when you’ve spent years hearing about it from afar.

I am not the only one who feels that way. After I had been here for a couple of years one of my co-workers from Fort Snelling came to visit. In fact, I think she was the one who made up the hand motions to help us recall the route to Mackinac.

I remember bringing her over to the island on the ferry and then casually strolling down Main Street as we discussed island history. My favorite part of the visit was when we turned up Astor Street and paused at the top. I swept my arm toward the Community Hall and said “And this, my friend Wendy (dramatic pause), was the headquarters of the American Fur Company.” She nearly swooned.

Photo Credit: City of Mackinac Island

You see it is really quite amazing that the Stuart House and the AFC Warehouse buildings are still standing. Very little from that time period is, let alone buildings that were so important at the time. And the fact that they have been so well restored and maintained is almost a miracle. But this is what is so wonderful about Mackinac. There are so many places that are “still here.” Other buildings and reminders from eras of the past are long gone or surrounded by a changed landscape. But on Mackinac Island we are surrounded by places and things that are directly connected to the past. I find this quite amazing.

My intent with this renewed blog is to share some of the other amazing things I know or learn about Mackinac. I worked on two projects in 2011 that gave me a chance to jump back into Mackinac history and I am excited to talk about some of the things I’ve encountered.

I do need to add a disclaimer here. As we move forward, much of what I share will come from, or seem affiliated with, Mackinac State Historic Parks. Even though everyone knows that they are a wonderful Mackinac history resource, you might feel like I have a little bit of a bias about them. You would be correct. In fact I have a HUGE bias about MSHP. I am married to the Deputy Director*, was hired for my first real job by the Director, and consider many of the employees personal friends. (*For the record, I worked here FIRST and was actually the one to recruit him for his first job at MSHP. We didn’t start dating until after he arrived.)

Having said that, my words here are my own and do not in any way reflect my husband, his job, Mackinac State Historic Parks, or anyone who works there. Thank you for mentally allowing for the idea that a person can have an identity separate from his or her spouse.

I look forward to the conversations I hope to start or participate in about Mackinac history. It really is an amazing place!

Mackinac at the Smithsonian

lcbrisson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:26:23 +0000

The Smithsonian Institution has a new search engine that allows users to “search over 2 million records with 265,900 images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian’s museums, archives & libraries.”

A quick search using the term “Mackinac” revealed 151 documents, including this print of a Lumber Boat, held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

1886 Drawing, pencil highlighted with white on paper, George Elbert Burr, born Monroe Falls, OH 1859-died Phoenix, AZ 1939

Perilous is Relative

lcbrisson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:39:17 +0000

It’s fall at the Straits of Mackinac and that often means drama in the water transportation department. Last Friday, some serious weather caused ferry cancellations to and from Mackinac Island and some exciting trips for passengers when they were still running.

This reminded me of the trip to Mackinac for Thomas L. McKenney, who stopped at the island in 1826. He came to Mackinac from Sault Ste Marie and described the canoe he rode in:

“Around the sides, and upon a white ground, is a festoon of green and red paint. The rim is alternate green, red, and white. On each side of the bow, on a white ground, is the bust of an Indian chief, smoking, even larger than life. The awning is bordered with green, and red, and white; in the stern our flag flies, and in the bow is an enormous wooden pipe. The canoe is thirty-six feet long, and five wide, across the centre, and is paddled by ten men.”

It likely looked much like this:

McKenney rode down the St. Mary’s River from the Sault:

At one o’clock we were off the mouth of the St. Mary’s; and at half past four, opposite Drummond’s Island. Encamped six miles beyond the Detour. Wind north-west, and cold. We are now thirty-six miles from Michilimackinac.

The next day, the party left at 5:30 in the morning and two hours later had the island in sight. They landed on one of the Les Cheneaux islands for breakfast and then set their sights for Goose Island, “before a fresh breeze, and over a high and rugged swell.”

McKenney described the rest of the journey:

“I saw the voyageurs were alarmed. Ran around the southwest side of the island, and landed at eleven o’clock. Found some Indians here, who told us it was not safe to proceed. A cloud rose in the south, and looked threatening. Some thunder. It passed over, and there was an appearance of calmer weather; but the waves were running high. One of the voyageurs refused to proceed, and said we knew nothing of the danger. In an hour we all thought we might venture across-distant to Michilimackinac, nine miles in a straight line. Put out. The lake (Huron) boisterous beyond what we had expected.”

Despite high seas and ignoring the warnings of those who knew the area well, the party made it safely to Mackinac Island. As if the canoe journey wasn’t exciting enough, upon arrival, McKinney received word of the vessel that had brought him North in the first place:

“Heard that the Ghent, in which we came to Drummond’s Island, had returned to Detroit, was condemned, and sunk! Her bottom was entirely decayed, so much so as to yield to the slightest pressure! She went from the Detour, after we parted from her, to Michilimackinac, took in part of a cargo, returned to Detroit, and while in the act of receiving her return cargo, sunk!-Our escape was indeed narrow!

It makes me grateful for modern ferry boats, annual inspections, and talented Captains who know when to say when.

Source: Edwin O. Wood. Historic Mackinac: the historical, picturesque and legendary features of the Mackinac country, Volume II New York: Macmillan, 1918. p. 148-151

Fall Day at Mackinac

lcbrisson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:08:44 +0000

This year’s early snow sent me to one of my favorite Mackinac Island journals to check on the island weather in the nineteenth century. Harold Corbusier was the son of Post Surgeon William H. Corbusier, stationed at Fort Mackinac from April of 1882 to September of 1884 and again for the summer of 1892. Harold began a journal on his tenth birthday, January 1883. His first entry was one of his longest:

“1883 January 1883

14th

I am ten years old today. We ate turkey and other good things for dinner. The ground has been covered with snow all winter. The Straits are full of ice except in one place between here and Round island. We can see boys skating near the docks. The Algomah has been fast in the ice near Mackinaw City since yesterday afternoon. The chimney in the church smoked so badly we would not have Sunday school. We have been at this post since April 23^rd 1882. I was born at Camp Date Creek Arizona.”

The status of the steamer Algomah, the island’s main link with the mainland, and the frequency of smoke issues in the church chimney were regular themes in Harold’s dairy, as was the weather. I knew I could count on him to describe a beautiful mid-October day on Mackinac Island:

“Sunday October 11, 1883

There was a light fall of snow last night.”

Cheer up, Northern Michigan. Our early snow is part of the Mackinac experience.

Source: Phil Porter, ed. A Boy at Fort Mackinac: The Diary of Harold Dunbar Corbusier 188-3-1884, 1892. Mackinac Island: The Corbusier Archives and Mackinac State Historic Parks, 1994. pp. 13, 56.

Less Cowbell

lcbrisson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:04:27 +0000

I am researching early visitors to Mackinac for a talk next week at the Historical Society of Michigan conference on Mackinac Island. One visitor to the island described his first morning and his dry wit made me laugh out loud:

“This morning I waked very early. At dawn heard the morning gun from the Fort, and soon after a clattering about the house; and the noise of cow-bells under the windows gave us notice that the world was astir.

“N.B. There are more cows on Mackina (sic) than in any other place of its size in the known world; and every cow wears at least one bell.”

Source: Edwin O. Wood. Historic Mackinac: the historical, picturesque and legendary features of the Mackinac country. New York: Macmillan, 1918. p. 191.

With Gratitude to Edwin O. Wood

lcbrisson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:50:49 +0000

For many Historians researching Mackinac history, the first place to start is a two volume publication called Historic Mackinac: the historical, picturesque and legendary features of the Mackinac country. Published in 1918, it was created by historian and former Mackinac Island State Park Commissioner Edwin O. Wood.

Volume One is primarily a narrative of island history as it was known in 1918. Chapters range from French Exploration in the Mackinac Country to Descriptive Notes on Names and Places at Mackinac Island. Full of quotes from earlier Mackinac sources, it is also filled with the gender and racial bias of the era.

Much more interesting to me is Volume Two of the collection. It is a compilation of primary source accounts of Mackinac known at the time of publication. It is here that I found a description by Elizabeth Therese Baird of festivities at the end of sugaring season in which flipping crepes was a scene of much hilarity:

It may not be amiss here to explain what to turn the crepe meant; when the cake was cooked on one side; it was dexterously tossed in the air and expected to land, the other side up, back in the pan. Never did I see objects miss so widely the mark aimed at. It seemed indeed that the crepes were influenced by the glee of the party; they turned and flew everywhere, but where wanted.

I also found Dr. Gliman’s description of a fishing party’s arrival on the island in 1835:

One of the trout was so large were induced to have him weighted. He weighed forty-seven pounds. As some one opened his huge mouth, I saw in his throat the tail of a white fish.

In researching Mackinac Foodways, or any other topic, it is invaluable to be able to access so many primary source accounts in one place. When I first began to research Mackinac history 15 years ago, the few copies of Historic Mackinac available were precious commodities and only to be found in limited libraries. When I was doing research I would read and take notes as fast as possible to be able to consume as much material in the limited time I had. Today, I can access the volumes online and even download them from Google Books.

There are newer publications that focus on primary sources of Mackinac history. Brian Dunnigan’s A Picturesque Station: Mackinac Before Photography 1615-1860 has been referred to as the “Historic Mackinac” of our era. Publications by Mackinac State Historic Parks focusing on historic and archaeological artifacts and historic photographs of the island also provide a direct link to the Mackinac of the past. But Historic Mackinac will always be the foundation built upon by the rest. Thank you, Edwin O Wood.