In the Land of the Trolls - Part One

The Yoopers refer to the people from down state Michigan as Trolls because they live under the bridge. We decided to take a day trip to the Land of the Trolls for a bit of fun. We left Friday after work and arrived home late Saturday night. Here is Part One of our adventure to the Land of the Trolls.

You may or may not be aware that I am terrified of bridges. The bigger and higher - the more I have trouble. The Mackinac Bridge is by far one of the largest bridges I have been on. I have to remind myself to breathe and force myself to keep my eyes open. Once, after an accident, my dad told me to face my fears with my eyes wide open. Since then I have always faced my fears with both eyes OPEN, though my hands may be covering my eyes. ;-)

I managed to keep my eyes open and my hands occupied with the camera. It is very hard to get a good picture of a bridge at night, when you are freaked out, and riding in a moving vehicle. What a sight to see! The bridge was breath-taking (ha ha) in more ways than one. It is very beautiful all lit up at night.

We stayed the night in a hotel so we could get an early start Saturday morning. Our first stop was to Fort Michilimackinac. Be sure to visit the link for a virtual tour and facts about Colonial Michilimackinac. We started our tour with a stop to the cannon for a demonstration. The boys correctly named the king at the time, who was King George III.

The two British soldiers were a treat to see. I enjoyed seeing how unkept they were. This is not meant as an insult, but more of compliment to how I felt they portrayed the time period. I do not know, but assumed that the soldiers did not have new looking uniforms. It was interesting to see how ragged they appeared. It was like they were seasoned British soldiers.

Here is one of the soldiers showing us a cannonball. It was suppose to be 6 pounds and felt every bit of that.
Stephen found out that it was HEAVY. I think it took the boys by surprise how heavy it was. I was smart enough to keep my hands under the little boys' hands in case they dropped it. The soldier said that it wouldn't explode, but your toes might. I believe it.

Getting ready to light the cannon.

All for King and country....

FIRE!

They told us that the cannon could accurately hit a boat off the shore, not too far away of course. I think they said that with a seven man crew they could fire four rounds from the cannon every minute. You may want to make visit to the fort yourself to confirm that.

There were a variety of exhibits set up in the buildings inside the fort. The boys are checking out the officers' quarters. There were FOUR fireplaces in that building. They said it took 17 cords of firewood PER fireplace to heat that building for the winter. Brrrr.
Inside the enlisted men's quarters there were some interesting displays as well as an interactive history of the time period. In the picture above the boys were seeing what it was like to live in the barracks. They had a daytime exhibit (above) and a nighttime one with sound effects representing wintertime. I felt cold walking through there. It was almost a bit creepy. The most interesting part of that building was the closet that a soldier was put in if he was in trouble. No light, no heat, just emptiness. Sometimes they were left in there for days. Yikes! I shut the door with Stephen and Blase in there for about 10 seconds. That was more than enough for them.

I always thought Rex was a dog's name. I guess this fits him huh??

We were treated to a brief history of the fort from the times of the French to the British take over. They also gave a quick run down on how the fort was conquered by the Indians and ultimately moved to the island across the strait some time later.
They also gave us a demonstration on how they loaded their guns and a basic strategy for fighting. Its all about volume - the more bullets in the air the higher the likelihood that one would hit something. In order to be a soldier you had to be 16 years old, be 5'6" and have four teeth. Four teeth?? Why? Well - you need to be able to bite off the top of the paper (pictured in his hand above) in order to get to the gunpowder. Ohhh, now it makes sense huh? Clear as mud, right?

Blase tried to volunteer for the British Army, but they weren't taking any new recruits. I think he was hoping they would let him hold the gun. I was kind of hoping they were. I suppose if we asked after the demonstration they would have. Anyway - Blase was 17 years old and over 5'6" that day. At least according the guy in charge.

They formed a very small line (two people count as a line right?) and showed us how one would advance, aim and fire - then the next line would advance doing the same.
I wish I could have gotten a picture of the smoke coming out of the gun. No worries! There were no small children or innocent animals hurt in the demonstration. They were not using live ammo. Oh shucks anyway!
They also gave us a quick example of how bayonets were used. Firing the gun was only 80% effective whereas the bayonet was 100% effective. Even a small scratch would most likely develop into an infection and ultimately death. They told us that most enemies would retreat as soon as they saw the bayonets.

The was taken before Brech wanted to get down and run everywhere and before Gianna wanted held instead of riding nicely. It turned out to be a long morning.

There were houses set up to show how the families would have lived. I must admit that the idea of living such a simple life has me wishing for simpler times. I do like my world the way it is, but the idea of less clutter and square footage to clean does sound appealing, for about 10 minutes. That was when we found the chamber pot and gave the boys a quick lesson on that. A big thanks to the kind person who thought of indoor plumbing!!

This was one of the people who was giving demonstrations throughout the fort. Stephen thought she was another mannequin and just about jumped out of his skin when she moved as he walked past the door. She was making noodles for a soup that smelled heavenly! Darren and I were just talking about how good it smelled.
She showed the boys how she put hot embers under the pot, some on top of the lid, and let it simmer. It seemed like a very effective way of cooking.
Inside the trader's house we checked out some of the furs. The boys were impressed with the bear skins as well as the skunk. I thought the raccoon pelts would be the best. Who doesn't want a Davy Crockett coon skin hat??
Brech wasn't too sure about the dead animals. Cormac and Rex on the other hand were quite willing to use the muskrats as puppets. We did pretty good on identifying the different skins. Darren was not allowed to play as he would have gotten them all correct right away.
The boys enjoyed the blacksmith working that day. He was making a hook used to pick up the lid off a pot from a safe distance away from the fire. I found it interesting that the blacksmith building was connected to the priest's house and church. There is more about that on the link to the virtual tour. (FYI - You have to find the dot representing the blacksmith building.)
Welcome to the latrine. Officers had their own two-holer on the other side of the building. I tried to get Blase to pose for an action shot of sorts, but he refused to cooperate. I'm sure you get the idea though.
This Tyler. He is Brech's new friend. They played in the rocks together. His mom was knitting in front of one of the houses. She told us that boys and girls were dressed the same until they were a certain age. I was glad that there was at least one child there for us to see. We came during the off season, so we didn't get the full show of activity. Maybe next time.

High up above on the wall above the gate.

I spy a couple of brothers watching me.

This picture and the next show some of the ammo used during that period. The middle ones are lead bullets used in the guns that were demonstrated.
The cannonball on the right would be like the six pound one we held.

That concludes our trip to the fort. Thank you for joining us. Tomorrow we will continue our field trip to Mackinaw City by sharing some pictures from the lighthouse. Its exciting so stay tuned.