A Look at History
Mackinac State Historic Parks Recall Island's 1880s Identity
BY FRANK STRAUS

The Mackinac State Historic Parks are hosting a series of events this summer, in keeping with identity as an American fort of the 1880s. It is impossible to get away from this decade when visiting Mackinac Island. Grand Hotel was built in 1887. Many of the historic cottages on the West and East Bluff were built in the 1880s. Many Island guests will visit the Island on the Arnold Line, which uses a pier that was already several decades old in the 1880s. Many of the buildings and shops on historic Main Street were built in the 1880s.

This was the first decade in which northern Michigan was connected by railroad to the rest of the United States. The improved transportation infrastructure created an economic boom in northern Michigan during this decade. Some of the effects of this long-ago "flush time" can be sensed faintly to this day.

Many of the 1880s-style buildings, celebrations, and annual events at Mackinac State Historic Parks have historical "odds and ends" attached to them. Learning facts about the State Park and its Fort creates a feel for life in the 1880s, when many of our great-great-grandparents were alive.

An 1880s view of Mackinac Island. (Photograph courtesy of Views of the Past and Tom Pfeiffelmann)

July 4, 2008, the interpreters at Fort Mackinac were scheduled to fire a 38-gun salute. This was a salute to the United States of America, and also to the state of Colorado, which was admitted to the Union in 1876. Colorado is the 38th state, and from 1876 to 1889, during the 1880s, it was the youngest of all the states. Back then, Colorado was a rough frontier state that mined silver and raised cattle; today, Denver is one of the nation's largest cities.

Saturday, July 19, Fort Mackinac's base ball players will tangle on the field with a group of base ballers from Mackinaw City. The game is called "base ball" rather than the modern "baseball" to point up the fact that the game's rules were different in the 1800s. The umpire had the right to demand that all players adhere to a code of conduct, and to exact nominal small fines against the players for ungentlemanly behavior.

Saturday, August 2, the "clank" of blacksmith's hammers will be heard in chorus at the Benjamin Blacksmith Shop, operated for many decades by Bob Benjamin's father, Herbert Benjamin, on Market Street. With millions of horses requiring the services of a "farrier," a man or woman who fits and nails horsehoes, blacksmithing was one of America's most successful professions in the 1880s. The craft almost passed away in the 20th century before its recent revival; many blacksmiths now specialize in household goods rather than horseshoeing. The annual Blacksmith Convention will bring together 10 to 14 blacksmiths, who will discuss the challenges of their craft and collaborate on a presentation project. Many of the vernacular ironwork and architectural fittings on display throughout the State Park were made in this shop.

Saturday, August 9, Mackinac Associates will have its annual meeting at Mill Creek, the reconstructed sawmill complex near Mackinaw City that dates back to the 1770s. By the 1880s the Mill Creek sawmill was no longer in existence, but several key Mackinac Island buildings, partly constructed of Mill Creek wood, were still in active use. Examples include the Fort Mackinac blockhouses, and the Mission House on Mission Point. The Mission House, in the 1880s, was operating as one of Mackinac Island's most successful hotels, competing with the Island House and other hostelries on the eastern end of the harbor of Mackinac Island. Although the Mission House's hotel days are now long past, the Mission House building itself survives to this day on the Island's southeastern corner, up behind the thriving Mission Point Resort of today. Studies of the building's timbering provided key clues to the State Park, when they were rebuilding Mill Creek. Archeologists could see how many teeth were on the Mill Creek saw blade, and even how fast the blade did its work.

Wednesday, August 13, friends of the State Park will perform the annual "Tombstone Tales" guided tour, in which costumed interpreters will describe some of the key stories from Mackinac Island's Catholic, Post, and Protestant cemeteries. It is very likely that some of the Island's key figures from the 1880s will be included in the tour.

Not only special State Park events will recall the 1880s on Mackinac Island. Lovers of architecture of this era who come to the Island, will find far too many buildings to count. Here are two examples:

During the 1880s, the U.S. Army significantly increased spending on items intended to maintain the comfort, health, and discipline of the soldiers. The last Fort Mackinac building to be constructed, the Fort bathhouse, contains six tubs for the soldiers to wash themselves. The bathhouse was built in 1885, and is one of the smallest buildings on Mackinac Island.

During the 1880s, several key American railroads collaborated together to extend train service to the Straits of Mackinac. Two of them, the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads, further allied with the Detroit & Cleveland steamboat line, to build what they hoped would be a private-sector landmark on Mackinac Island. Grand Hotel, which enjoyed its first summer in 1887, is to this day by far the largest building on Mackinac Island.