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Mackinaw City, Mich. — On Monday, February 25, for the first time ever, Mackinac State Historic Parks will present two of its education outreach programs together and for an entire community. “Historic Mackinac on Tour,” a history program about the Straits of Mackinac, and “Water, Woods and Wildlife,” a Michigan nature program, will be brought via plane to the two students at Pines Elementary School on Bois Blanc Island and the 52 member year-round community, which has been invited to attend the back-to-back programs. A potluck will follow the presentations. Bois Blanc Island is located in Lake Huron about six miles north of Cheboygan, Michigan.

“This is the first time we’re doing both programs together,” said Jeff Dykehouse, “Water, Woods and Wildlife” presenter and curator of natural history at Mackinac State Historic Parks (MSHP). “‘Historic Mackinac on Tour’ will be presented first, and then I will have the opportunity to talk about different things in my program as they relate to history. For example, the history presenters will talk about the fur trade, and then I will talk about the animals that were associated with it.”

“Historic Mackinac on Tour” was last brought to Bois Blanc Island fifteen years ago, when MSHP presenters drove snowmobiles across the frozen terrain of Lake Huron. It is one of the many ways that MSHP goes above and beyond to bring the benefits of their education outreach programs to all students, and in the case of Bois Blanc Island, to an entire community.

“We wanted to bring in Michigan history,” said Pines Elementary School teacher Wendy Spray. “When this came across my desk, we all thought it’d be great to expose the students to it.”

Spray sees this as a positive experience for not only the island’s two students, a second and fourth grader, but for the entire island community.

“In the past, the community has been involved with the students,” she said. “It brings the students the opportunity to know the community better, and it gives the community the opportunity to interact with students…The children absolutely enjoy the camaraderie that comes with it.”

 Dykehouse commented, “We’re not just talking to the students, we’re talking to the entire community. This is about Straits of Mackinac history and about Michigan’s natural history, and they’re living it.”

 “Water, Woods and Wildlife”, presented by Dykehouse, is an interactive, high-energy program that teaches children about the many natural resources surrounding them and the positive or negative impact they can have on Michigan’s natural environment.

“I try to get kids excited about this,” said Dykehouse. “To many of them, natural history is not as exciting as playing video games. If I can just get them more excited, I think they’ll want to learn more about natural history, and the more they learn about it the more they’ll want to protect and preserve it. That’s my ultimate goal.”

With many props, including posters, birdcalls and animal furs and skulls, Dykehouse will explain the difference between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores and the role of decomposers, producers and consumers in the food chain and the food cycle.

During the hour-long program, volunteers will hang a photo of the sun, a plant, a deer and a coyote around their neck to become a food chain. Students and community members will hear the difference between the “swoosh” of a goose feather and the silence of an owl’s. And many questions will be answered. What impact did the pesticide DDT have on bald eagles in Michigan? Why does the great-horned owl eat skunks? How can litter potentially lead to the death of an owl?

Attendees will also learn about the Great Lakes’ watershed and the many ways that it interconnects with the animals of Michigan. They’ll compare the size and depth of the Great Lakes, view a satellite photograph of the region, and experience the sights and feel of taxidermy mounts, pelts and skulls of the many animals that depend on the watershed for life.

“Many students don’t realize how lucky we are to live in the middle of the Great Lakes and how valuable fresh water is,” Dykehouse said.  “In the future, we will all come to the conclusion that our most valuable natural resource is fresh water.”

In addition to learning about nature, students and community members at Pines Elementary School will meet characters from the past when a British Redcoat and French Voyageur visit during the “Historic Mackinac on Tour” presentation. Through authentic music, dance, costumes, skits and props, 18^th-century Mackinac will come to life.

            “We make history come alive,” said MSHP program presenter, Jim Evans. “It’s a different way of teaching students than just using a textbook.” Evans, who plays the “pesky” British Redcoat during presentations, is also the lead interpreter at Colonial Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City.

            “Historic Mackinac on Tour,” an hour-long program, introduces students from across Michigan to Mackinac history through interactive and entertaining activities. At Pines Elementary school, students and the community will learn about the fur trade by trading a bale of fur for a voyageur coat. A few brave volunteers will try on authentic period clothing and then lead the audience in the group paddle dance, where two people join hands and skip between rows of audience members while live fiddle music is played. Other high-energy activities include fire starting with flint and steel and the firing of a shoulder-mounted cannon or musket.

“The kids are thinking they’ll get a history lecture,” said program presenter Dennis Havlena, “but we come in with fiddles, furs, bagpipes, clothing to dress up in, flint and steel to light fires, and we expose them to one thing after another. You can’t find a wandering eye among them.” Havlena, who plays the French Voyageur during presentations, created the program in 1989, and has over 28 years of experience with the parks, including many years as the lead interpreter at Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island.

The musical time bridge between songs is also demonstrated during the program on a historic musical instrument commonly called the jaw harp. Havlena begins by playing a song from the mid-1700s called “The Rose Tree.” By the mid-1800s, the song had sped up and was known as “Turkey in the Straw.” By 2008, the song had eventually evolved into two versions that are known by many children and adults today. One version is called “Do Your Ears Hang Low” featured on the popular children’s program Barney and Friends, and the other is a recent popular rap song titled “Chain Hang Low” by Jibbs, both of which have roots in the slower beat song of the 18^th century.

“It’s the same song as ‘The Rose Tree,’” Havlena commented. “It’s the same melody. I present the musical time bridge to make the connection between past and present. I relate something they know well to something they don’t recognize, and that connection is made.”

“Historic Mackinac on Tour” and “Water, Woods and Wildlife” are part of a larger MSHP education outreach program series. Their education outreach programs have reached over 159,000 Michigan students since the creation of “Historic Mackinac on Tour” in 1988. These programs are partially funded by Mackinac Associates, Mackinac State Historic Parks’ non-profit friends group whose mission is to preserve Mackinac’s heritage.

Mackinac State Historic Parks is a pure Michigan family of living history museums and parks in northern Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac and is an agency within the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries. Its sites—which are accredited by the American Association of Museums—include Fort Mackinac, Mackinac Island State Park, and Historic Downtown on Mackinac Island, and Colonial Michilimackinac, Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse and Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park in Mackinaw City. Visitor information is available at 231-436-4100 or on the web at www.MackinacParks.com.