As summer winds down, so does the archaeological field season. The 2026 field season at Michilimackinac was very productive. On the east end of the wall trench, the culturally-sterile rocky glacial beach was reached in two more squares. Only a few remnants of the trench remain in the area where the early twentieth-century tree stump used to be. On the western end of the trench, three wall posts were excavated and removed this season. A brass kettle lug was found in this area. The unknown feature between the wall and the central cellar was better defined. It is characterized by lots of chinking and animal bones.
The central cellar continues. It is becoming sandier, which may indicate we are nearing the bottom or may just indicate a layer of different fill material. The cellar continued to yield personal adornment artifacts, including a corroded metal sleeve button and part of an embossed brass shoe buckle frame.
The site is now packed for winter and the archaeologists have moved into the lab to clean, sort, and identify everything that we found during the field season. Excavation will resume in early June 2027.
Click here to see what we were expecting going into the season, and here for where we were at mid-season. Interested in more archaeology? Consider attending Michigan Archaeology Day in late October!
