MSHP Announces 2008 Programs

Event dates have been announced for the upcoming year at Mackinac State Historic Parks at sites on Mackinac Island and in Mackinaw City.

The Michilimackinac Pageant will be May 24 through May 26 at Colonial Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City. The pageant is a reenactment of the 1763 Native American attack on the British-held fort and fur trading village. It is free of charge.

June 17 at 6:30 p.m. will be the introduction of new features at the Mill Creek site near Mackinaw City, now called Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park. The event will celebrate the addition of the High Ropes Nature Experience, in which visitors will be able to soar over Mill Creek on an aerial cable ride called the Eagle's Flight Zip Line and walk through the treetops on the new Forest Canopy Bridge.

Grand Hotel will host "An American Picnic" July 4 on Fort Mackinac's parade ground on Mackinac Island.

Vintage Base Ball will return to Mackinac Island State Park July 19, as the Fort Mackinac Never Sweats challenge the Grangers of Rochester. The long-standing rivalry is played barehanded and by gentlemen's rules on the old soldiers' parade ground base ball field behind Fort Mackinac.

Also on Mackinac Island, the Benjamin Blacksmith Convention will be August 2. Tombstone Tales will be August 13, offering a guided walking tour where participants will encounter characters from Mackinac Island's past at the Island's three historic cemeteries.