Fort Michilimackinac

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Fort Michilimackinac
Fort Michilimackinac.jpg
Fort Michilimackinac is located in Michigan
Fort Michilimackinac
Location Near Mackinac Bridge, Mackinaw City, Michigan
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Built 1715
NRHP Reference # 66000395[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP October 15, 1966[3]
Designated NHL October 9, 1960[4]
Designated MSHS February 18, 1956[2]

Fort Michilimackinac was an 18th-century French, and later British, fort and trading post at the Straits of Mackinac; it was built on the northern tip of the lower peninsula of the present-day state of Michigan in the United States. Built around 1715, and abandoned in 1783, it was located along the Straits, which connected Lake Huron and Lake Michigan of the Great Lakes of North America. Present-day Mackinaw City developed around the site of the fort, which has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. It is preserved as an open-air historical museum, with several reconstructed wooden buildings and palisade.

History

The primary purpose of the fort was as part of the French-Canadian trading post system, which stretched from the Atlantic Coast and the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes, and south to the Mississippi River through the Illinois Country. The fort served as a supply depot for traders in the western Great Lakes.

The French had first established a presence in the Straits of Mackinac in 1671 when Father Marquette established the Jesuit St. Ignace Mission at present-day St. Ignace. In 1683, they augmented the mission with Fort de Buade. In 1688 they established a mission at Sault Ste. Marie near the Straits of Mackinac. In 1701, Sieur de Cadillac moved the French garrison to Fort Detroit and closed the mission.

By 1715, however, the French built the wooden Fort Michilimackinac to re-establish a presence along the Straits of Mackinac. Over the decades, they made several modifications and expansions to the palisade walls. Chevalier Jacques Testard de Montigny, who was a Lt. and a Knight of the Order of St. Louis, was appointed in 1730 and served for three years as commandant of the fort. He was previously commandant of Fort La Baye. Many of his relatives settled in Michigan.

The French relinquished the fort, along with their territory in Canada, to the British in 1761 following their loss in the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years' War. The British continued to operate the fort as a major trading post, but most residents were French and Métis (Ojibwe-French), who spoke predominately French and worshipped at Sainte Anne Church in a small log structure. Other civilian residents included British fur traders, some of whom resided within the fort in the southeastern row house.[5]

The Ojibwe in the region resented British policies as harsh. On June 2, 1763, as part of the larger movement known as Pontiac's Rebellion, a group of Ojibwe staged a game of baaga'adowe (a forerunner of modern lacrosse) outside the fort as a ruse to gain entrance. After entering the fort, they killed most of the British inhabitants. They held the fort for a year before the British regained control, promising to offer more and better gifts to the native inhabitants of the area.

The British eventually determined the wooden fort on the mainland was too vulnerable. In 1781 they built Fort Mackinac, a limestone fort on nearby Mackinac Island. They moved related buildings by dismantling them and moving them across the water in the summer and over ice in winter to the island during the next two years. Patrick Sinclair, the lieutenant governor of Michilimackinac, ordered the remains of Fort Michilimackinac destroyed after the move. Ste. Anne's Church was also moved.

Today

In 1960 the fort grounds were designated a National Historic Landmark. This is a popular tourist attraction as part of Colonial Michilimackinac State Park in Mackinaw City, a major section of the Mackinac State Historic Parks. Interpreters, both paid and volunteer, help bring the history to life, with music, live demonstrations and reenactments, including musket and cannon firing demonstrations. The site has numerous reconstructed historical wooden structures, based on archeological excavations. This is considered one of the most extensively excavated early colonial French archaeological sites in the United States.

The fort grounds also contain the foot of the Mackinac Bridge, Old Mackinac Point Light, an 1892 lighthouse; and a day-use park, with a view of the Mackinac Bridge and Mackinac Island.

See also

Recreated buildings inside the fort

Michigan portal New France portal

References

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Further reading

External links