- City:
- Mackinac Island, MI
- Site Type:
- Archaeology and History, Archaeology, Historical Restoration
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Completed:
- 1936
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The WPA conducted extensive restoration work on this site. According to Frank Straus: “The second cycle began in the summer of 1936, when the Works Progress Administration rebuilt Fort Holmes, using an 1817 engineer’s detailed drawing and elevation of the original redoubt. The federal agency, operating with a workforce encamped on the northern side of the Island at the site of the current solid waste transfer station, raised a new blockhouse, re-dug the ditch, piled up soil for a new embankment, and lined the outward walls of the embankment with cedar logs to rebuild the palisade.”
Source notes
Source of information: (1) National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Work Projects Administration, Information Service, Primary File, 1936-42, Box 15, Folder 290-B.
Frank Straus, “A Look at History: Highest Point of Mackinac Island, Fort Holmes To Be Rebuilt,” Town Crier, August 9, 2013, accessed August 1, 2014.
The New York Times: "Fort Holmes Being Restored," Feb. 2, 1936 (pg. 4)
Site originally submitted by Brent McKee - wpatoday.org on July 28, 2015.
Additional contributions by Evan Kalish.
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