When audiences watch “Raiders of the Lost Ark” from the Indiana Jones film franchise, they are often left awestruck by the end of the film, as a large warehouse is shown housing numerous unknown objects such as the Ark of the Covenant. Now, imagine a group of archaeologists and museum staff organizing such objects, storing them in longer lasting containers, with catalog numbers and documented locations, so researchers will know where the objects are. Mackinac State Historic Parks is finishing a three-year archaeological inventory project at that has in some ways felt like that, if just on a smaller and less grand scale. But such fictional and realistic examples demonstrate the importance of how archaeological or museum collections must be organized and properly cared for in storage. Otherwise, museum and park staff and researchers would not know where to find even a pottery vessel.
Mackinac State Historic Parks was awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant in September 2023 to assist in the inventory of its archaeological collection. With the help of inventory assistants many of the artifacts – numbering over one million – have been rehoused and inventoried. The main goal of the project was to inventory and update the catalog record, as well as rehouse the artifacts at Mill Creek storage into archivally stable materials. This also included finding lost or unknown objects, with many relocated to the Petersen Center in Mackinaw City, where storage facilities are properly maintained and prevent object deterioration over time, ensuring they will endure for future generations. Objects stored at this office also underwent inventory and rehousing, as during the winter months, it was necessary to relocate to Mackinaw City, as the Mill Creek storage facility roads were not accessible that time of the year. Hence, for three winters the inventory assistants switched focus to the objects in storage at the Petersen Center.
Now with the project coming to a close, it is easier to find and access many of the artifacts in storage at Mackinac State Historic Parks, versus those hidden away like in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The Mill Creek site artifacts and a portion of the Fort Mackinac artifacts at the Petersen Center have been inventoried, as well as the building materials for Michilimackinac and Mill Creek stored at Mill Creek. While a portion of the objects from Mill Creek and Mackinac Island have not been inventoried yet due to a lack of time, a future project should be able to manage those. Hopefully, the progress made will give future inventory teams an easier time in organizing and rehousing the remaining objects.
