Curator of Archeology at Fort Michilimackinac Lynn Evans (front) and archeology student Lierin Holly of Florida, pause at the site of a dig Thursday, July 31. They are uncovering the site of a row house inhabited by French and later British traders more than 200 years ago. Now that the archaeology teams have outlined the basic shape of daily life at Fort Michilimackinac for soldiers and traders hundreds of years ago, researchers are taking an even closer look at details of how the British occupation of the site differed from the French occupation, and how the two cultures may have interacted. This summer, archaeologists are digging deeper into a row house, and they are rewarded with finding small artifacts every day.

Now in its 50th year, the ongoing excavation and reconstruction of the site in Mackinaw City has been heralded as one of the longest ongoing digs in the country, each year providing more information for scientists and the public.

Having completed excavation of a structure last summer, the fiveperson team is renewing an incomplete dig of a rowhouse site begun in 1989 and discontinued in 1997. They are focused on the fourth unit of a five-unit row house, approximately 25-feet by 25-feet in size.

Amber Rose displays a musketball of a trade-caliber weapon dis- covered Thursday, July 31, at an archeological dig at Fort Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City. Miss Rose is of the University of Alaska at Anchorage and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. A trader's home, the site is yielding a rich collection of objects that the team cleans, studies, and ultimately displays at the Treasures in the Sand exhibit, just around the corner from the dig. More than 200 years old, the site was created when the fort was partly destroyed, partly dismantled, and moved to Mackinac Island in the late 1700s, a move by the British to strengthen their position during the American Revolution.

As historical interpreters teach tourists history, the archeology team fields questions, teaching archeology even as they glean information and artifacts from inside the fort's stark, gray walls.

These two bottle caps, dating to the 18th century, were unearthed by archeologists at Fort Michilimackinac this summer. The cap on the right is from a case bottle. It has square sides to fit into a case for transportation. "Every time I find an artifact, there is an idea and a belief behind it," said Libby Smith of Indiana University, as she screened sand and soil in search of the past, Thursday, July 31. "To me, connecting the belief to the artifact is the most important part of what I do."

Current theory holds that they are uncovering a home occupied both by French and English traders over time. Most recently, they suspect a British tradesman lived in the fort during the British occupation, unusual because, at the time, most British traders lived outside the fort and the row houses were occupied by traders of French descent who were allowed to live there, as long as they swore allegiance the English king.

About 67% of the original fort has been excavated, about 40% has been reconstructed, and artifacts are steadily confirming that it was a civilian house, which the team believes was in exceedingly poor condition when the fort was relocated. Unlike other buildings that were dismantled and moved, it was demolished between 1779 and 1781, explained Lynn Evans, curator of archaeology at the site.

Pictured here is part of a Micmac pipe, a form used by Native Americans and French Canadians in the 1700s. It is among the treasures found at Fort Michilimackinac's research into a row house demolition site this summer. The word Micmac is derived from a native Algonquin term. Since it is only the second summer of what is likely to be a 10-year project, "it is too early to have much more than basic impressions," she said.

The quest is to discover the fine details of daily life at the fort. The team is finding a range of ceramics, and a variety of objects that support the demolition theory and the belief that traders of two distinct cultures lived in the house.

"We are really interested in this house in looking for the differences between a British trader and a French trader, people doing the same thing, occupying basically the same place in the community, but from different cultural backgrounds," she said. "It's just too early to know what is going to shake out, but that is what we are looking for, differences in diet, differences in trade goods, and differences in personal possessions."

Unlike many archeological sites, there is never a day at Fort Michilimackinac that fails to yield an artifact that helps complete the puzzle, she said.

This summer, in addition to the daily discovery of beads, pieces of glass, the bones of animals eaten by the house's inhabitants, and ceramic shards, they have found a number of exciting artifacts in the rubble.

From the ever-changing soil of each era, they have found the latch of the building's window; two pieces of a stone Micmac pipe, which is a form made by French Canadians and Native Americans; bottle tops; brass buttons adorned with designs; a pewter British military button made prior to 1768, and iron knife blades that will be identified as French or British artifacts by close investigation of their shapes this winter. Further, the dig has produced the upper jaw and bolt mechanism of a flintlock musket, and a lead seal fastened to a bolt of cloth and stamped CDI, for Compagnie des Indes (the Company of the Indies), which operated until 1769.

With so many reconstructed buildings, authentic clothing reproductions, and period weapons at Fort Michilimackinac, the group can easily compare their findings to determine how an object was used.

"It is easy to make that leap from an individual thing to how it would have functioned in a community because there are similar things already here," Dr. Evans said.

Helping confirm civilian use of the house, Amber Rose, a student working on the project, found a musketball of a trade-caliber weapon just before Dr. Evans described this year's findings to The St. Ignace News.

The team cuts into the earth like a layer cake. They have surpassed the modern litter layer, and arrived at the demolition layer. Ultimately, they will uncover the full British and French occupation periods. In the process, they may even discover a thin layer of charcoal, a remnant of the fort's construction found elsewhere on the site, marking the day the French burned brush on the beach, making way for construction, Dr. Evans said.

During their occupation, British records provided only that a trader lived in the house, as of the most recent report. The French kept more detailed records of who lived there, including Charles Gonneville, who traded in the 1730s, '40s, and '50s, before vanishing from the historical record, Dr. Evans said.

Learning how he lived, and how he lived differently from the British people around him, is a focus for her team.

"We have the basic outlines of our puzzle. Now we are filling in the details. We are able to supply comparative data for all kinds of projects out there," she added, speaking of the overall Fort Michilimackinac project.

The archeologists have been in close contact with the Fort St. Joseph excavation project in Niles, where a structure from the same period is under the auspices of Western Michigan University. There, archeologists are finding artifacts comparable to the Fort Michilimackinac dig.

"One of the interesting things about that is that we can see where things are the same and where they are different, what things were true at all forts, and what things might be different at our fort because [it was] a more strategic location, and a bigger fort," Dr. Evans said.

So far, discoveries at Fort Michilimackinac have pointed out just how hard the British worked to move their operations.

"At first we did not realize the scope of it, what a really massive, thorough job they had done. We knew they had moved buildings, and we knew there was pretty much nothing left, but we had not realized the scope of it for a long time," Dr. Evans said.

As she explained her project, tourists stopped to ask questions of her team. This day, field supervisor Justin Baetsen of Western Michigan University took his turn to answer the day's inquiries. Meanwhile, Lierin Holly of the University of Evansville in Indiana, Ms. Rose of the University of Alaska at Anchorage and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and Ms. Smith sifted and sorted material through metal screens.

Each is focused on 5-foot by 5- foot square in the earth, where they analyze everything from large artifacts to the soil and its changes over time.

Among the most interesting aspects of this dig for the team has been the reaction of visitors to their efforts.

While the team agrees the media has made the public more aware of archeology, "for the vast majority of our guests, this is the first time they have ever seen a real archeology dig, watched it happen, and they can talk to a real archeologist. They get very excited," Dr. Evans said, particularly because discoveries are made here every day.

Ms. Holly termed the excavation and interpretations "the actual face of archeology." For her, explaining her field and what she is doing at the fort is the best part of the job.

"I'm in it to bring it to the public," she said.

The team provides a powerful experience for visitors, a chance to understand history through interpretation, Mr. Baetsen said.

These things have been buried for so long that being able to connect them to the public is highly rewarding, Ms. Rose added.

The opportunity to see and understand what archaeologists are doing, almost at the very moment the past is uncovered, she said, is exciting.