Our Trip to Fort Mackinac

We recently took a road trip up to northern Michigan and a boat trip over to Mackinac Island to explore its historic fort.  The fort was built by the British during the Revolutionary War to defend the strategic island of Mackinac which is located where the great lakes of Michigan, Huron and Superior meet.  At a time when boats were the primary transportation and lakes and rivers were the speediest avenues for getting around, controlling this island meant controlling access to a large portion of the Midwest and Canada.  Fort Mackinac was voluntarily turned over to the United States by the British at the end of the Revolution.  U.S. custody of the island was short lived though as the British launched a sneak attack against the garrison at the start of the War of 1812 and the fort's commander surrendered when realizing his soldiers were surrounded and grossly outnumbered.

Our visit marked the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Mackinac Island where in 1814 a U.S. force of 700 soldiers fought the British in an attempt to retake the isle.  It turned out to be a devastating loss with 22 American soldiers being killed, including the second in command Major Andrew Holmes, and 55 wounded resulting in a retreat from the battlefield by the United State's forces.  The fort's military cemetery contains the remains of the soldiers killed in that battle and is one of only four national military cemeteries where the Stars & Stripes always flies at half mast....the other three being Gettysburg (Pennsylvania), Arlington (Virginia), and the Punchbowl (Hawaii).  In 1815, the British returned control of the fort to the United States as part of the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812.  Fort Mackinac remained an active army base for the U.S. military from 1815 to 1895.

In 1875, Mackinac Island was named the second national park in the United States, Yellowstone was the first, and the soldiers at the fort served as park rangers.  In 1895, the army decommissioned Fort Mackinac and turned the island over to the State of Michigan.  Mackinac Island became Michigan's first state park in 1896.  Mackinac Island State Park over the years had become a popular tourist destination in the Great Lakes region.  In addition to Fort Mackinac as an attraction, the island also features a policy that no motorized vehicles are allowed on it so transportation is primarily by horse drawn carriages and bicycle, which provides a quaint charm...oh and a multitude of fudge shops also dot the island and are popular with tourists.

Fort Mackinac has a great children's exhibit for preschoolers through elementary aged kids.  It has some great interactive features that will both entertain and educate the children who stroll through it.  Dress up as a Victorian era American soldier, pet some of the pelts that made the area the fur trade capital of the 1600s, 1700s & 1800s, play a fife, re-enact military drills on a green screen, and listen to stories about what life was like for a child whose father was stationed at the fort.  These are just a few of the features available to help you provide your child with a history lesson during a family vacation.  The Kids Zone is located in the Officer's Stone Quarters which is Michigan's oldest building constructed in 1780.

Place your hand in each of these dark boxes and try to identify the animal whose fur you are petting.  Afterward push a button and the window lights up showing you the pelt and the name of the animal it belonged to.

Dress up in reproductions of the uniforms soldiers wore while Fort Mackinac was an active military base in the 1800s.

Re-enact military drills on a green screen and have yourself projected on a video monitor with soldiers from the 19th century.

Look out a window at the modern day village below the fort than place a hand held screen over the window and see what the view from that same window looked like in 1880.

Play the giant fife! 

In addition to the Kids Zone exhibit, children can also interact with costumed staffers who are stationed around the grounds.  One costumed lady in Victorian garb demonstrated to my kids how children in the 1800s played games than pulled out a big trunk of toys from that era that she let them play with on the parade grounds.  A young man dressed as a soldier who would have been stationed at the fort in the 1880s played "Old Susana" on a harmonica for us.  We also enjoyed rifle firing and cannon firing demonstrations during our visit.

For the adults in the family, while the things I mentioned above are interesting and fun for everyone in the family, there are also things to check out at the fort that may be of more interest to an older audience.  Fort Mackinac has 14 original buildings that have been restored and filled with period antiques and historical artifacts. Check out the displays and information about how Doctor William Beaumont (the hospital down the street from our home in Metro Detroit was named after him) became known as "The Father of Gastric Physiology" based upon experiments he did at the fort on a fur trader named Alexis St. Martin who had a hole blown into his abdomen from a gun accident.  Beaumont learned how digestion worked by looking through a hole that never healed in the man's stomach during the years 1822 through 1833.  Take a look at the bath house that is filled with antique claw footed bathtubs that were state of the art when they were installed in 1885.  The original guardhouse is still standing with the "hole" that some soldiers were thrown into for bad behavior.  The post canteen is an interesting look at how the soldiers entertained themselves in the 1800s playing games like pool and drinking Schlitz beer.  The fort also has a well-stocked gift shop called the "Sutler's Store".  

If you go to Mackinac Island in addition to enjoying the horses, scenic views, and fudge shops, make sure you also visit the fort.

CLICK HERE for more information about Fort Mackinac.

CLICK HERE for more information about Mackinac Island.

A Hands -On Adventure in Ann Arbor

We took a road trip with our kids this weekend to Ann Arbor to check out their children's Hands-On Museum.  The museum has a focus on teaching children about the science behind everyday life through more than 250 exhibits that let kids touch, feel & experience demonstrations & experiments.  Admission is $10 per person for both children and adults.   It is located on Ann Street tucked away along a nice neighborhood in downtown Ann Arbor in close proximity to 2 parking decks and numerous restaurants.  The museum is divided up into 9 areas covering four floors: the "Concourse", "All About You", "Preschool Gallery", "Legacy Gallery", "Michigan Nature", "World Around You", "Lyons Country Store", "Light & Optics" & "Media Works".

The "Concourse" is the main floor of displays for the Hands-On Museum.  Some of the fun and interesting things they had on display were whisper dishes at either end of a hall that reflected sound waves so that you could hear someone whisper to you from one dish to the other, the Building in a Building that shows you how things like a toilet, furnace, insulation, and electricity work inside your house, Google Liquid Galaxy that provided a 3-D computer generated view of the world around us as if you were exploring the Earth from a visiting space ship, the Tornado Generator that recreates miniature tornadoes in front of your eyes, along with an area where you can play with huge building blocks, water tables, and an original World War 2 flight simulator.

The "All About You" area of the Hands-On Museum has a real ambulance on display where you can climb aboard and pretend you are on an emergency run.  They also have machines that you can interact with that let you hear your heart beat and do other things to explain health topics and let you examine your own physical fitness.

We spent the bulk of our trip in the "Preschool Gallery" that had a huge exhibit that demonstrates how physics work by shooting rubber balls through a metal obstacle course in addition to water tables, a fish tank with a real life Finding Nemo clown fish, a building blocks room, a play house and a miniature fire truck.

The "Preschool Gallery" is designated for children 5 and under.  It is a shame that the museum doesn't have the another physics display like the one in this area for older children to have access to because I believe it would be entertaining and educational for most grade school kids of any age.  It's nice to have a space for younger children to enjoy without being overwhelmed by "older kids" but this was one of my son and daughter's favorite parts of the museum and they'll be too old to experience it again if we go back again as they will be turning 5 in a few months.  My 4 year old twins did have a blast in this area though during our trip!

The "Lyons Country Store" is an early 20th century general store that shows store goods and toys from this time period.  What is most interesting about this display though is the 21st century tech it demonstrates ... there is a realistic 3 dimensional hologram that tells you about the store in the exhibit.  This probably was the Geek Daddy's favorite part of our visit. I wish I'd gotten a good picture to share with you but unfortunately all my photos just show a blur.

The "World Around You" had a really fun exhibit where you walked inside a circular area and pulled on a chain.  This action raised a screen around you that created a bubble film screen around you.  I hadn't seen this type of display before, based on the same premise as blowing bubbles in the back yard, and it was fun to play with.  The area also had a bee hive, a piano you could walk on and play like the one in the movie "Big" and some pipes that you banged on with a sandal to make music.  There also was a fun climbing wall for the kids along the back wall of the room. This was another interesting and amusing part of the museum.

The "Legacy Gallery" had some interesting mechanical displays including an awesome exhibit called the Magnetoscope which allows you to manipulate magnetic fields to create amazing patterns in fluid.  It also had an interesting maze display that shoots metal balls through it to explain how the Internet and email work.

Unfortunately, I have to say that the last three areas of the museum were somewhat lame and could use some work, even though our kids did have some fun in the "Media Works" area dancing in front of a screen that re-displayed their images on a big screen as colorful images that vibrated to their motion. That being said overall it is a very nice facility with friendly staff and we had an enjoyable experience with our visit.

If you live in Southeastern Michigan or may be visiting and have preschool, kindergarten or young grade school kids, I'd recommend stopping by the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.  For families with older children, you may want to consider a trip to the Imagination Station in Toledo though.  Check out my post from our family's visit there: "Our Trip to the Imagination Station."