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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Van Auken, Robin. 2002. East Blockhouse at Fort Mackinac, Michigan
Abstract: During the summers of 1980 and 1981, Roger T. Grange, professor of anthropology and archaeology at the University of South Florida, his wife, Jane, and a USF field crew excavated two sites at historic Fort Mackinac, Mackinac Island, Michigan: The Provision Storehouse, and a trench adjacent to the East Blockhouse. Originally built by the French in 1715 as Old Mackinaw to distinguish it from Ancient Michilimackinac at St. Ignace (Ring and Salkin 1995:351), the fort first had been occupied by the French and then British military forces prior to its relocation to Mackinac Island in 1780 by the British. Following the war of 1812, the British relinquished the fort to the American forces. The Americans constructed an East Blockhouse between 1815 and 1820, inside the fort and adjacent to the front entrance. While working under contract to the Michigan State Park Services, Grange excavated a trench, 3-feet wide by 30-feet long, stretching west of the East Blockhouse as a salvage operation. The trench was needed to alleviate a drainage problem, and the park service did not want to destroy a part of the archaeological record.Grange and his field crew conducted the salvage project simultaneously while performing an excavation on the Provision Storehouse. The archaeological evidence from the East Blockhouse culminated in 26 stratigraphic layers, which are correlated with the history of the site. Artifact group frequencies were used when comparing intra-site activities, providing a chronological framework, and a walkway area was defined.
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