Mackinac Associates’ mission is simple and encompassing: Friends Preserving and Sharing Mackinac’s Heritage. Mackinac Associates is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports programs at Mackinac State Historic Parks through membership
At Mackinac State Historic Parks, we are fortunate to have a huge variety of historic information available to help us protect, preserve, and present the resources under our care. Our
Mackinac States Historic Parks archival collections preserves thousands of items documenting all aspects of Mackinac history. In this ongoing series we highlight some of these treasures.
Fresnel lenses served as the heart of lighthouses around the world, including at Old Mackinac Point. Invented by French scientist Augustin-Jean Fresnel in 1819, these brass and glass beehives bent,
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again.
Mackinac State Historic Parks is fortunate to have an ever-expanding collection of original objects related to the sites we preserve and interpret. These objects help us share the many stories
In 2017, the Mackinac Island State Park Commission accessioned 102 gifts and 85 purchases to the historic object and archival collection. Among the objects acquired was a 1934 map of
Summer on Mackinac Island buzzed in the 1820s with the booming fur trade. Fort Mackinac was busy regulating the fur trade during this bustling time. The winter was a different
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a New Deal work program established in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It provided skill-based jobs to unemployed Americans affected by the Great
