01/26/2007

Inland Lakes Teachers Invite Redcoats, Voyageurs into Classrooms

Mackinaw City, Mich. — On January 29, the British are coming to Indian River, and a French voyageur as well. That’s when the interpreters of Mackinac State Historic Parks (MSHP) plan to present “Historic Mackinac on Tour” at Inland Lakes Middle School. During the one-hour program, students will learn by watching and also be invited to try on colonial-era clothes, listen and dance to period music, and examine and trade furs.

“It’s one thing to read about people and events that make up history, but it’s another to see it acted out in front of you,” explained Mackinac’s Curator of Education Katie Cederholm. “This program brings a new understanding of Michigan history to students. When they hear, smell, see, touch, and participate in the past, they appreciate it on a deeper level, and that can create a powerful spark of interest.”

“Historic Mackinac on Tour” brings the Straits area’s British, French, and Native American stories into the classroom. Interpreters dress as an 18^th-century British redcoat and a French voyageur, play bagpipes and the fiddle, and use a trunk full of historical items to teach hands-on history.

This program is the only museum education outreach effort that travels all over Michigan. It is partially funded by Mackinac Associates—a nonprofit friends group that supports Mackinac State Historic Parks’ programs—and is one of a series of educational offerings from MSHP that includes a natural history program, educational curriculum materials, “loaner” artifact boxes for teachers, class trips, and special evening programs at Fort Mackinac and overnight programs at Colonial Michilimackinac.

MSHP’s outreach efforts have proven immensely popular, reaching more than 150,000 Michigan students since their beginning in 1988, and winning an Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan.

Mackinac State Historic Parks is a family of living history museums and nature 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, Historic Mill Creek, and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in Mackinaw City. Visitor information is available at 231-436-4100 or on the web at www.MackinacParks.com.