Fort Michilimackinac - Mackinac, MI

Anyone who knows me knows that I am something of a history buff, and that when I go to new places I am always interested to know what sort of cool stuff has happened there in the past. Admittedly, I am more inclined to think some historical facts are cooler than others. For example, I could really care less about where the first locomotive was built, or if I am standing at the Wright Brother’s home, while I am enthusiastic about Colonial forts, castles, and battlefields. 

Me with a Chippewa War Club

This past week I took a trip to northern Michigan with my girlfriend and her family. Mackinaw City, and Mackinac Island (Pronounced the same way as the city, with an “AW” at the end.) are about as far north as you can get in that state without getting to the UP (Upper Peninsula) The highlight of the trip, for me at least, was Colonial Michilimackinac. This is an excellent recreation of the 1775 era fort that sat at the convergence of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Founded in 1715 by the French to support the thriving fur trade on the northern great lakes, Michilimackinac (from where the city Mackinac got its name) fell into British hands in 1761 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War. The fort has been recreated in its entirety, something worthy of Colonial Williamsburg and some of the other world famous historical sites. The homes and shops inside the fort are as authentic as they can be, even showing the difference between French built and English made buildings. (The French made their homes with vertical posts sunk directly into the ground, while the British built theirs using dovetail corners and horizontal planks on top of a foundation.) It is worth mentioning that the site is a complete fort – not simply a rebuilt tower or battlement with a few buildings around it. Once you enter Colonial Michilimackinac, you are surrounded by timer walls, rustic cabins, and detailed portrayals of life. There are no highways or neon signs or snack bars to break the scene, and it is quite easy to become engulfed in it.

The site is also still an active archeological dig. There has been a constant archeological presence in the area since it was first excavated in the 60’s, and part of the tour was a briefing by the archeologists, and allowed guests to ask questions about either the process, or colonial life in Northern Michigan.



Archeologists explaining their dig site

Fur Trading Post at MichiliMackinac

Despite the impressive reconstruction and the ongoing archeological excavations, what really stood out with this site were the reenacters, or interpreters. Where many historical sites are manned by either bored college students looking for a grade/summer work, or retired historians/professors looking to fill the hours, the interpreters at Colonial Michilimackinac were energetic, knowledgeable, and passionate about the history they were portraying.

Standouts included the British 8^th Regiment of Foot, and the French Voyagers (apparently pronounced with an accent, as in all the literature it appears in italics.)

British Grenadier



The girl portraying the voyager was the first interpreter that we spoke to. She clearly knew her subject matter, and explained how the (mainly French) trappers, shippers, and river folk would make the seasonal trips around the great lakes, to and from Montreal and New York, stopping off at Fort Michilimackinac. She was outside the fort, complete with 30 foot canoe rigged up as a tent, and trade goods spread out ready for purchase or barter. She was incredibly knowledgeable, very in character, and set the tone for the entire experience.

French Canadian Voyager at her camp outside the fort



The British 8th Regiment of Foot - Firing 3 rounds a minute

The redcoats were represented by two companies of the 8^th: A Battalion, or line company, and the Grenadier company. The uniforms were spot on, down to the last detail, without the comical red felt that typically accompanies a more costume style British soldier. This was the first time I had seen a British Grenadier represented so faithfully, and I was very impressed. More than just their physical appearance, the interpreters took pride in their work. They knew what they were doing, knew the manual of arms for their musketry demonstrations (even demonstrating the “tap load” that was faster, but not always reliable) and some (when asked) confirmed that they could, indeed, fire the three rounds a minute that was the mark of a good soldier in the ranks of an 18^th Century army. After the demonstrations, the troopers escorted groups around the fort on tours, or were seen maintaining their gear at the guard house – a discipline and authenticity seldom seen at other historical sites.



Interpreters representing Battalion Companies of the 8th

Cleaning the Brown Bess

Overall, I could have spent all day here. This would normally be a very boring prospect unless you are a history geek like me, but the passion and knowledge of the interpreters, and the attention to detail throughout the entire location and site made this an experience that could genuinely be enjoyed by all.

True Patriots - Kentucky Long Rifles

Read a great article on a historians collection of Revolutionary War era Kentucky Long Rifles. This Article is by Donovan Webster from Garden & Gun Magazine. I am a big fan of this magazine, and even though it is usually filled with good stuff, articles like this really jump out at me. As a history buff, Son of the American Revolution, and firearms fan in general, I can really appreciate the history and American culture behind these pieces.

The article is available at: True Patriots - Dan Webster

By Donovan Webster | Feb/March 10 | 

True Patriots

Virginia collector Michael Tuccori’s eighteenth-century Kentucky rifles are studies in American history

Almost every kentucky rifle has a story to tell. The one I’m looking at has a rectangular silver inlay near the rifle’s butt that reads: “C Kelsey.” And etched along the top of the rifle’s black barrel—in blocky and bold letters—is this: “New Market made by H. Spitzer.”

“This weapon was made by Henry Spitzer,” Michael Tuccori is saying as he handles the antique Kentucky rifle, its curly maple stock glowing gold in the morning sun. “Spitzer was a gunsmith working in New Market, Virginia, and he made this gun for Charles Kelsey, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1794. Records show that Kelsey moved into Kentucky with his wife in 1795, only the next year. He took the rifle with him. Now it has come back home.”

As Tuccori says this, we are in a room in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Hung on a wall are his collection of roughly five-foot-long Kentucky rifles, also known as long rifles, amid a collection of equally long fowling muskets, gunpowder horns, and handmade pistols from the American Colonial era. A dealer and collector of antiques, Tuccori, sixty-three, focuses his weapons collection on the few years either side of the American Revolution for a specific reason.

“By the 1800s, you get a more cookie-cutter weapon,” he says. “Before that, it was master gunsmiths working on the frontier with a journeyman and an apprentice. They hand-bored each gun’s barrel, then hand-rifled each barrel themselves using a tool. It was slow and painstaking work. After about 1800, the process got more mechanized, so the weapons get less unique.”

Still, Tuccori goes on, it didn’t take long for everyone who saw a Kentucky rifle to want one. Since the rifled barrels shot balls much farther and more accurately than muskets shot pellets, long rifles quickly became very desirable. “The people settling this part of the world moved around…a lot,” he says. “They traveled into Kentucky, up to Pennsylvania, down into Tennessee, then back. They lived in buckskins or loincloths. There were elk, grizzly bear, and eastern buffalo everywhere, and these rifles helped to keep them fed. And there were also Native Americans who could be hostile. So riflemen and settlers wanted a more precise weapon, both to hunt and to protect themselves.”

A smooth-bore musket, Tuccori says, can fire shot pellets only at close range. Long rifles can be accurate to hundreds of yards. “At one point in Revolutionary times, a man named Timothy Murphy shot a British officer at three hundred yards using a long rifle,” Tuccori says. “That’s a pretty fair shot with an open sight. To the people settling this part of the world, an accurate weapon like that was indispensable. It was more valuable to them than an ax or a hoe.”

Because of their unique history and relative scarcity, the price of Kentucky rifles—as well as that of the long muskets and pistols—has risen significantly in the last few decades. And while it’s impossible to know how many Revolutionary-era long rifles are around, their rareness has made them very expensive.

“Even a nondescript one from the era we’re talking about goes into the six figures,” Tuccori says. “And while we do see a few New England rifles around from that time, the majority of them come from the area between Pennsylvania and North Carolina, though they’re generally referred to as Kentucky rifles.”
Though Tuccori says that new Kentucky rifle finds occasionally bubble onto the market out of attics and unknown family collections, most are traded from known and established collections. “Most are identifiable by collectors. The greater majority of them are made with curly maple stocks and the rest with another hardwood, usually cherry. And each has a hand-forged flintlock. After the Revolutionary War, gunsmiths began to trade once again with Britain and France, and they bought manufactured flintlocks from Europe, which is why the weapons prior to that time are more distinctive. After the Revolution, in places like Birmingham, England, they were making and exporting flintlocks by the boxload.”

Still, the variety of the designs and materials used in the creation of Kentucky rifles goes on and on. Earlier versions of the weapon have far thicker buttstocks, plus sliding pieces of wood to cover the butt’s “patch box,” an indentation where greased patches of cloth were kept to separate the rammed-down gunpowder charge from the ball rammed tight atop it. Later-made weapons have elaborate iron or brass patch-box inlays and thinner overall profiles, each design denoting a specific maker, whether there’s a gunsmith’s name on the rifle or not.

“You know, you look at the guns on the wall here,” Tuccori says, “and you can watch the design evolve across the American Revolution. It’s just another way of seeing how our country made itself.”