At Michilimackinac, many residents, including soldiers, voyageurs, and merchants, lived transient lives shaped by seasonal work and changing economic conditions. This instability became even more pronounced during the American Revolution, when shifting political control and military priorities added further uncertainty to daily life. Yet not everyone expected this instability to continue indefinitely, and some looked toward longer-term settlement. Merchants, along with Indigenous families who had long called the area home, were among those most likely to establish lasting roots. The planting of fruit trees offers one small but meaningful piece of evidence of that intention.
Fruit trees represented more than seasonal or culinary enjoyment; they required long-term investment. Unlike annual crops, they demanded years of care before producing fruit. When people planted apple, plum, or pear trees, they committed to future food production and signaled an expectation that they, or their families, would remain in place long enough to benefit from that labor.
In the broader context of early North America, fruit cultivation was both practical and aspirational. Wealthier residents in settled areas often maintained enclosed “fruit gardens”. These were managed spaces where grafted European trees, vines and shrubs were grown for high-quality dessert fruit. By the late 18th century, commercial nurseries, such as the Prince Nursery in Long Island, made a wide range of European fruit trees available to buyers. At the same time, new American varieties began to come about, first from seedling orchards and later through intentional cultivation. By the end of the century, fruit growing had become more systematic and more widely practiced.
Travelers’ accounts suggest how widespread fruit trees had become in some regions and help place Mackinac within this larger context. Writing on the east coast of North America between 1748 and 1750, the Swedish naturalist Pehr Kalm observed that “every countryman has a greater or lesser number of apple trees planted round his farmhouse,” producing fruit for sale, cider-making, and household use. His description reflects an amount of agricultural stability not always present in more trade and business-focused places like the Mackinac region, but it also highlights the bigger cultural importance of fruit trees in early North American life.
At Mackinac and in the western Great Lakes, references to fruit trees appear sporadically, but they are no less revealing. In the 1670s writers recorded numerous wild fruit trees growing along the Detroit River. Tonty, a French officer at Detroit, mentioned apples trees and plum trees in the early 1700s. by the mid-1740s a French military garden at Detroit included apples, pears, peaches and plums. By the 1770s, French Canadian producers near Detroit made and sold cider locally, demonstrating that fruit cultivation supported both household use and small-scale commerce. Because Detroit and Mackinac remained closely connected through trade and family networks, practices like these likely influenced life at Michilimackinac as well.
The records of the Askin family, living for a time at Michilimackinac, provide some of the most vivid glimpses into the agricultural connections. In 1776, merchant John Askin listed in his inventory a farm near Detroit that included orchards, suggesting both agricultural investment and access to cultivated fruit. A few years later, in 1779, his daughter, who had by then moved away from her parents Archange Meredith Askin wrote home asking for instructions on making apple jelly. “As my dear husband has what the English call a sweet tooth, I want to cram that tooth for him with something good. He often speaks of that delicious apple jelly, and every time he mentions it, I am sorry that I do not know how to make it. Please, dear mother, teach me that secret by the first chance you have after receiving this”.
By the early 19th century, fruit cultivation had begun to take a stronger hold in the region. Writing in 1807 from St. Joseph Island, Madelaine Askin described sending apples grown from seeds originally planted at old Fort Mackinac and later transplanted to Mackinac Island. These trees, passed along through family, represent continuity across both space and time. That same year, John Askin Jr. requested young apple trees to be shipped to him at St. Joseph’s Island from his dad at Detroit. He recommended that they be “a dozen or less of Apple Tree plants the size of half an inch in diameter or more. The roots may be put in a small keg pressed together and filled with earth and the limbs twisted in straw to prevent their receiving any injury. I would rather have few but good stout plants”. It was an indication of both the challenges and the value of establishing orchards in the region. By 1808, John Jr. reported that the trees had been successfully planted and were thriving.
In a place shaped by movement and uncertainty during the American Revolution, residents planted trees that would not bear fruit for years. References to orchards, the transport of seedlings, and the use of fruit suggest that some people at Mackinac pursued more local and stable forms of food production. They adopted broader agricultural practices to a fur trading center and created small expressions of permanence within their community.
Today at Colonial Michilimackinac the reconstructed fort and fur trading village includes newly planted fruit trees that reflect this history. These plantings help interpret the role of food production in the 1770s. This year, the site will also mark the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution with tours and special events. To learn more and to see heritage apple trees in the landscape, visit Colonial Michilimackinac or explore mackinacparks.com.
Posted June 11, 2026
By LeeAnn Ewer, Curator of Interpretation
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