Brian Jaeschke Begins New Job, Park Registrar
By Eric Fish

Brian Jaeschke was named the new registrar at Mackinac State Historic Parks last October and splits his workload between Mackinac Island and the mainland. His duties include maintaining objects of historical and archaeological significance.

Last summer, Brian Jaeschke was helping construct exhibits at Fort Mackinac. This year, he's beginning his first summer as the new Mackinac State Historic Parks Registrar.

Splitting his time between the mainland and Mackinac Island, Mr. Jaeschke's duties as registrar mainly involve maintaining objects of historical and archaeological significance.

"Basically, its a lot of cataloging, computer work," he said. "I deal with the transportation of the artifacts when we bring them in from the Island or the mainland."

Mr. Jaeschke began working with Mackinac State Historic Parks last May as an exhibit technician and became the registrar last October. With an affection for the outdoors, history, and nature, Mr. Jaeschke's new profession seems perfect, and he agrees.

"I've always enjoyed the park sites and coming to the Island," he said. "In a way, it's a bit of a dream job."

Mackinac State Historic Parks includes Fort Mackinac and Mackinac Island State Park on the Island, several downtown museums, and Colonial Michilimackinac, Historic Mill Creek, and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in Mackinaw City.

Mr. Jaeschke was born in Evanston, Illinois, and grew up nearby in Glenview before his family moved to Wyoming, Michigan. It was there that his family began making regular trips to Mackinac Island.

"We usually came up and stayed two or three days here and camped," he said. "I liked the history of the Island and all the buildings. I like being around the water. I'm an outdoors person."

Following high school, Mr. Jaeschke enrolled at Lake Superior State University and was graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology in 1997. He then worked on Great Lakes freighters for about six years.

"I enjoyed that quite a bit," he recalls.

After working on the boats, Mr. Jaeschke received his master's degree at East Carolina University in a special maritime studies program that also involved underwater archaeology. He also studied under an internship at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

Mr. Jaeschke is now working on an inventory of all the historic objects in the Fort Mackinac exhibits.

"The inventory and some of the stuff we're doing now is just for the summer, and the winter is kind of the catch-up period and not as active as it is now," he said.

There's also been some fringe benefits to his position that he hadn't experienced in his prior vacationing visits.

"Up until last summer, I had never been in Grand Hotel," he said. "Now I can't count how many times I've been in. It's just amazing all the scope of the park and all that they do. It's been really fun."

In his free time, Mr. Jaeschke enjoys attending concerts, going to movies, Indy car racing, history, and the outdoors. Although he's been making trips to Mackinac Island for much of his life, there's still more he'd like to get out of his registrar experience before long.

"I'm kind of amazed that there's some aspects of the Island I haven't discovered yet," Mr. Jaeschke said. "There's some spots that, probably this summer, I would like to explore a little bit."