Evolution

Antarctica has now cleanly melded into a vigorous inquiry on the beginning of time.

I had intended to introduce the concept of American history this fall by beginning with the Land Bridge, since that would be the beginning of human American history, but it's funny how when you try to begin in one place it can seem as though you need just a little more first. Land bridge? What about the humans who used it? So okay, early humans it is first. But that's kind of an open beginning, and after watching the History Channel's Ape to Man he had questions about evolution, and the step before that is the introduction of life, yadda yadda. If we were an actual unit studies family one might have to call this the American History Unit Study: From the Big Bang to the American Revolution and Onward. Ha ha.

Calvin is now all kinds of interested in the dawn of time. We followed up Ape to Man with BBC's Walking with Monsters, a rather enjoyable series of three videos on the Paleozoic Era. This afternoon found us scouring the library for books on evolution, Charles Darwin, and the very beginnings of life. There's a surprising amount of good material out there and we have a tall stack of books to go through this week, or as we see fit, plus some related play dough and painting projects, a science look at what it means to be alive, color by number (addition) pictures of Paleozoic life, and possibly some new felt to design, make, and play with. I'm sure we'll also watch the videos again, and there will be other activities that suggest themselves as we go. We'll spend as much time as we like traipsing through seriously historic history, and eventually we'll get around to America and U.S. history. Eventually.

Fort Michilimackinac

Faced with another beautiful day and what were we to do? One could get used to this. We made the drive to Mackinaw City early to avoid traffic, but we took the back roads, too, and that's where we found all means of animal life—horses, deer, and even a coyote. I don't know why anybody would take the main roads, but I suppose that's why they call them main roads, and it's because everyone takes them that we are able to enjoy the more rural routes alone. 

The Mackinac Bridge—overlooked by many who think only of San Francisco when suspension bridges are mentioned—is the largest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere, the third largest in the world. Even on a misty morning it is beautiful in the early light, the lake still a dusky gray, the upper peninsula hidden from sight by a dense fog. The land under the bridge on the lower peninsula side is Colonial Michilimackinac State Park, a much better choice than overpriced hotels or luxury condominiums. Visiting as often as we do, we are more like locals in the sense that we don't come solely to take in the big sights, and that means I haven't visited the state parks or historical spots since I was quite young.

The old fort on the park grounds was once the protector of the straights, the gateway to the west, in fact, during that era. Built originally in the 18th century by the French as a headquarters for the fur trade, it was later taken over by the British, then briefly by the Native Americans, then back to the British, and finally was dismantled and moved to the Island to avoid capture by the renegade colonists during the Revolutionary War. 

The site of the original fort was reserved first as a local park as long ago as 1857, and later became protected as state ground. Reconstruction began in the 1930s, but was removed and re-reconstructed, this time more authentically, in the 1960s. Archeological study of the site has been ongoing since then and reconstruction continues. I know it's bigger than when I was last there. And we got to see them working in the current dig site, where they uncovered an animal skull while we watched and brought it over for Calvin to get a good look, but our interest this time was less in the growth of reconstruction, more in the history of the fort, and thereby our state.

We watched them cooking and learned about their meals of sausages, pickled meats, fish, potatoes, radishes, and whatever other garden fare was available season-wise. We watched a young lady spinning thread with a drop spindle. We hob-nobbed with redcoats. We did a turn on the upper walk of the palisade and watched a loud demonstration with a cannon. We toured the trader's house with its pelts and other stock, a church, the priest's house, the powder magazine, and the soldier's barracks among other things.

After enjoying the fort and grabbing a quick bite to eat in the shade with a view of the bridge in the background, we walked the historic footpath along the shores of the Straits of Mackinac. We enjoyed the bridge, we toed the water, and we looked at the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse before we set out for home via a different back route that took us through Wilderness State Park and gave us another chance to swim at our favorite beach spot.

For more information:

Colonial Michilimackinac (and other Mackinac attractions)

Mackinac Bridge

Wilderness State Park

Log Cabin Weekend

When I think of log cabins I think of prairie trains, and bad Westerns and tall, tall waving blades of grass. And just thinking about that era makes me feel tired, hot and dirty. This past week Calvin read a book about the Western prairie. He'd picked out the book, Twisters on Tuesday, because of his recent obsession with tornadoes, but the story was about the pioneer days, a coincidence that turned out to be fortuitous because this was Log Cabin Weekend at the nearby Waterloo Historical Society farm grounds and museum. The weather was beautiful, so after garage saling (side note—we got a telescope!), of course we drove out to Waterloo.

There was a bit of period mixing going on. While the original log cabin was built in the 1830s, the rest of the house was finished 20 years later, and the Civil war encampment on the grounds was not only physically misplaced, but also another decade on down the timeline. That's okay, knowing that the war motif was part of the weekend, and having luckily picked up a copy of Civil War on Sunday at one of the garage sales we read it on our way to the farm (side note again—I love garage sales).

Strangely enough I didn't take a single picture of the actual log cabin while we were there, but the German family who lived in built this house directly onto it, and later is was removed to further away.

Then a tour of the inside of the house...

Back outside we watched the creation of a wooden mallet with a really old engine. And in the background, a blacksmith hammering out hooks.

The Union soldiers were camped just down the hill...

And when we were done on the farm grounds we drove around the corner a few miles to the one room school house, which was in use as an area school until 1963. Really, 1963! That's just two years before my parents graduated from their large and age dedicated high schools in larger cities elsewhere in Michigan. I find that fascinating.

This had been our first trip to the Waterloo Historic Society grounds, and we'll go back for a few more events this year. The buildings are as well kept as those at Greenfield Village, which is farther away and more expensive, and I enjoyed the quiet of the day, wandering through history without fighting crowds. In fact, there were only a handful of visitors like ourselves there, while the rest of the people wandering around were reenactors taking advantage of a beautiful weekend to hang out with other reenactors. There were times, in fact, when it felt as though we may have been intruding on their foray into the past, like when we went down to talk to the Union soldiers in their camp.

We took the scenic roads both to and from Waterloo and stopped for more Michigan strawberries from a stand on our way home. After dinner we had a fire and roasted s'mores and talked about living in a time when fires were the only way to cook, myself decided that the gas stove with electric start is worth having. And that rounded out a nice Saturday.