Marquette Park is a landscaped park located on

Mackinac Island Mackinac Island ( ; french: Île Mackinac; oj, Mishimikinaak ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ; otw, Michilimackinac) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac an ...

in the U.S. state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. It is part of

Mackinac Island State Park Mackinac Island State Park is a state park located on Mackinac Island in the U.S. state of Michigan. A Lake Huron island, it is near the Straits of Mackinac. The island park encompasses , which is approximately 80% of the island's total area. ...

and stands on the edge of Mackinac Island's harbor on the

Round Island Channel The Round Island Channel is a navigable Lake Huron waterway located between Mackinac Island and Round Island (Michigan), Round Island in the Straits of Mackinac. It forms a key link in the lake freighter route between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan ...

and just east of downtown

History

When

Fort Mackinac Fort Mackinac ( ) is a former British and American military outpost garrisoned from the late 18th century to the late 19th century in the city of Mackinac Island, Michigan, on Mackinac Island. The Kingdom of Great Britain, British built the for ...

was built in a commanding location on a bluff above Mackinac Island's harbor in 1780–1781, the relatively flat plateau between the bluff and shoreline was set aside for the Fort's use. During the 1800s, the Fort's men used the area as a

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

garden, growing

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es and other foodstuffs there to supplement their rations. MarquetteParkMI2

After the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

ceased to use Fort Mackinac in 1895, the plateau area was redundant. The new Mackinac Island State Park decided to adaptively re-use the former vegetable garden as a quasi-urban park. The newly landscaped park was dedicated to Father

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette S.J. (June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Sainte Marie, and later founded Saint Igna ...

in 1909. A major planting of varietal

lilac ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering plant, flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and wid ...

s took place in Marquette Park in 1964, and the State Park also in that year installed a replica chapel intended to evoke memories of a pioneer structure erected at Mackinac Island by

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

, including Marquette, in the 1670s. Today, Marquette Park serves as a visual frame for Fort Mackinac and as the site of mile marker 0 on the circular M-185. The park serves as a popular tourist destination on the island.

References

Mackinac Island State Park facts
Mackinac Island State Park Parks in Michigan Protected areas of Mackinac County, Michigan Historic district contributing properties in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Mackinac County, Michigan {{MackinacCountyMI-geo-stub