About MAHS
The Mackinaw Area Historical Society (MAHS) began with a dream followed by a meeting on July 22, 1996, which was described in the minutes as "an informal meeting of people in Mackinaw City who are interested in starting a Historical Society." From that simple beginning, MAHS was born. The "Articles of Incorporation" were filed by August 21 of the same year. Shortly thereafter the Internal Revenue Service granted tax exempt status to the fledgling organization.
This determination and "get at it" attitude have been the hallmarks of MAHS in the ensuing 15 years.
In the first years of the 21st century, sitting on a porch overlooking the Straits of Mackinac, a few MAHS members and supporters had another dream: A Heritage Village where the history of the Straits area could come alive! In 2004, through the tireless efforts of officials from the Village of Mackinaw City, Emmet County and MAHS, a forty-three acre parcel of land previously owned by the McCormick Foundation and later by Emmet County was transferred to the Village of Mackinaw City for the express purpose of constructing Heritage Village as a partnership between Mackinaw City and MAHS.
The partnership decided that everything in the village - the buildings, the artifacts, the costumes, the history and stories - would strictly fall within the period between 1880 and 1917.
Our village now includes:
• An 1880's one-room school from the community of Freedom, a few miles east of Mackinaw City
• The Mackinaw City pest (pestilence) house from the same era as the school house
•The sawmill that cut the logs for the locks at Sault Ste. Marie right after the turn of the century
• A tarpaper work shack
• A vintage base ball field (yes, it was two words back then)
• An artifacts building
• A community garden
• A community pavilion
• Modern outhouses
An 1897 church from Brutus, a machine shed, a replication of a prominent family's farm, the Stimpson Homestead, are on site and slated for completion in the near future. Educational programs are in place or are being developed to bring each to life.
Our most treasured objective is to educate children through exciting interpretation, participation, and enthusiastic retelling of the history of that time. In a typical year hundreds of school children visit Heritage Village. We invite teachers to bring their students to our Village to "really see what Great Grandma Smith meant about no lights, no cars, no planes, no telephones when she was a girl." High school and college students, home for the summer, fall in love with base ball using 1870's rules when gentlemanliness was the standard and an umpire could simply ask, "Were you safe or out?" and a "ballist' (player) would respond honestly, much to the delight of the "cranks" (fans).
To read a historical document that preceded the founding of the society, click on the following: