Behind the Scenes at the Fort

May 17, 2015

Fort Michilimackinac in Mackinac City is celebrating its 300th anniversary this summer, with loads of special events running May 30-Aug. 15.

Established in 1715, the Fort was small at first, but grew with time and need.

"It was a full, thriving city, not just a military outpost," explained Kelsey Schnell, public relations and marketing officer for the Mackinac State Historic Parks Commission, "and it was actually occupied up until the Revolutionary War."

A mix of French and British soldiers, French-Canadian voyageurs, colonial civilians, Native Americans and various traders brought the Fort to life. All of these are represented in the Fort’s modern day pageant, a nearly twohour-long, on-site reenactment of one of the battles that took place at the Fort. The public, of course, is invited to watch.

And here’s a peek at what makes it all tick.

WHEREFORE ART THOU, PAGEANT?

The first pageant was held in July 1933, albeit on a much smaller scale. In 1959, archeological work at the Fort began, and a more accurate and extensive version of the pageant started running in 1962.

"This year is the 53rd consecutive pageant," confirmed Meghan Michialak, president of the Fort Michilimackinac Pageant Committee (FMPC).

Michialak has been in the pageant her entire life and seemed a natural fit to coordinate the event.

"I’m 41 now and my mother carried me the first time," she said. "Early on, staging the pageant was part of trying to bring visitors here in the spring," she explained. "It was originally held in June, but then got moved to the Memorial Day holiday weekend. It’s the longest-running historical program in the state of Michigan and it’s always free."

THE FORT WANTS YOU

The cast of the pageant is entirely volunteer and anyone who wants to participate is invited.

"If you watch the pageant on Saturday and decide you’d like to be part of it on Sunday, we’ll costume you up and send you out there," Michialak said.

The actors are mostly residents and former residents of Mackinaw City who return to be in the event, and there are also several history reenactment groups that participate.

"There’s a group of "˜voyageurs’ that travels around and they always make a stop at our pageant," Michialak said. "And because the pageant has been going on for so long, there is always someone to show others the ropes. For some people, this is the only reenactment event they ever do."

DRESSING FOR SUCCESS

Many people sew their own costumes for the pageant, following the FMPC’s guidelines to make them as accurate as possible.

"For instance, for the colonial women, they wear a long chemise, a skirt and a vest, and we have patterns available for all of those," Michialak said. "I portray a Native American woman and I hand-sewed my own authentic buckskin outfit."

The FMPC does have a limited number of costumes that people can borrow if they make a last-minute decision to participate and they also provide the uniforms for the British and French soldiers, so they all look consistent.

WRANGLING THE ACTORS

Actors gather with their character groups before the pageant begins, so anyone peeking behind the scenes will see a startling sight: large groups of soldiers, Native Americans and colonial women casually standing around.

You’ll hear people talking about their jobs, families and current events, as this is where friends catch up after not seeing each other since last year’s pageant.

Once the pageant begins, a narrator/host gets things moving, with every effort made to keep things as historically accurate as possible – but it’s still show business.

"The pageant is a theatrical piece, so we want to make it interesting and entertaining, as well as educational," Michialak said. "We never want it to get stale, so we’re constantly improving it."

COOL COMMUNITY

The pageant is eagerly anticipated by the Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island communities, as well as by traveling visitors. The baggataway match (originally baaga "˜adowe in the Ojibwa language) is a favorite component of the reenactment.

A precursor to today’s lacrosse, baggataway was used as a ruse during the uprising at the Fort in the late 1700s, when the Ojibwa staged a game outside the Fort’s walls. The men "lost" a ball over the wall, and the Ojibwa women passed concealed weapons to the men when they were allowed entry to retrieve it; once in the fort, the Ojibwa proceeded to take it over, and would hold it for a year.

Fortunately, today’s baggataway games are only full of harmless hijinks.

"One year, someone substituted an orange for the baggataway ball," Michialak laughed.

The game is a friendly-slash-serious competition that may result in a few bruises and lost wigs. But in the end, these ambitious folk work together throughout the overall pageant to create something that captures the attention of history fans each and every year.

"It is our history," Michialak said, "so the pageant is almost like living history and it definitely unifies us. After all, the more a community does things together, the more we are a community."

For more information on this year’s Colonial Michilimackinac Pageant (May 23-25), visit mackinacparks.com.

MICHILIMACKINAC BY THE NUMBERS:

1: The number of countries that first built and occupied the fort: France

2: The original June date for the pageant, in order to commemorate Pontiac’s Rebellion on June 2, 1763

5: The weight of a typical baggataway ball in ounces

10: The percent of the population of Mackinaw City that participates in the pageant

15: The seconds it took for a man to load and fire a musket in the 1700s

37: The number of acres in Michilimackinac State Park

65: The percentage of the fort that has been archaeologically excavated

400: The total number of actors in the cast of the Fort Michilimackinac pageant each year

1889: The year the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse began operations

1,000,000: The number of archaeological artifacts that have been unearthed in the park to date