Building on their appeal to children and young families, planners at historic sites in the Straits area have learned, is an important tool to generate repeat business. The sites, including Colonial Michilimackinac, Historic Mill Creek, and Fort Mackinac, are finding new success with interactive features that children particularly enjoy, and officials at the sites will explore opportunities to add even more elements like these to their activities in the future.

Families and children have always been an important to Mackinac State Historic Parks (MSHP), said Greg Hokans, chief of development and marketing. When children are engaged and entertained, their families are entertained, and the children are more likely to come back with their own children. If they have an enjoyable experience, Mr. Hokans said, that memory will last for years.

"It's a great way of not only affecting our audience of 2009, but making an investment in the future," he said. "The 12-year-old boy that shoots the cannon in 2009 will be that 30-year-old with their young child, watching them shooting the cannon."

At al MSHP sites, like Fort Mackinac and Colonial Michilimackinac, program developers want the visitors to become immersed in history and interact with it. At Fort Mackinac, visitors are encouraged to march with the soldiers, and one lucky child even gets to help shoot a cannon.

"That type of guest interaction is so important because we want to keep history relevant," Mr. Hokans said. "We want to let them know it's something they can participate in and, even though it is 200 years old, it's something they can touch and feel."

The programs and exhibits at the two state parks have been developed by Chief Curator Steve Brisson, Director Phil Porter, and Curator of Education Katie Cederholm. The importance of involving the public in the programs is paramount in the way the sites are run.

"It's important to have something that relates to the individual's presence," Mr. Brisson said, "so it's not some esoteric thing that they can't connect with. That's why we shoot cannons and muskets and rifles off; it provides an entertainment value, it provides something dramatic and hooks the visitor and gets them interested. While you are doing that, you are able to tell a greater story about any number of different things."

Open hearth cooking in the downtown historic buildings on Mackinac Island is a good example of teaching visitors while entertaining them, he said. Instead of announcing a lecture on multiculturalism in the Biddle House, cook a meal and then explain to the visitor why you used the ingredients you did, he said. The ingredients will demonstrate the multiculturalism in the house.

"When they came in the building, they were hooked with this, people in costume and the open hearth and the smell and the taste and everything, and maybe even getting involved in a little bit of that, but when they leave the door, we've planted the seed in their brain about the fact that there was a mix of different cultures."

In situations like these, Ms. Cederholm said, the children are often the hook that involves the whole family. While the parents might not want to help stir or spin yarn, the children will want to and then the whole family is paying closer attention. With this in mind, the parks have also had a children's section, she said.

"I think it is mostly focusing not on kids but on families, so they are actively involved," Ms. Cederholm said. "I'll tell you at Kids' Quarters at Fort Mackinac, when we get the senior groups here, I think they have more fun than the kids sometimes. I think it is just the [interactivity] of it, we want families to interact, we want some place that families feel safe, educated, and entertained at the same time. So even if grandparents bring their kids, it's just not the kids, it's something that generations can interact with."

Another key aspect of the programs at the sites is making the group feel involved by the participation of just one. Not everyone wants to drill, march, or play a game, but that is okay, Ms. Cederholm said, because, by watching, they will still feel involved. The spectators still feel connected to those guests who choose to interact, because they know this person is a fellow visitor and not trained.

"I think that's our push in any of the programs," she said, "to make it interactive, whether it is physically interactive and people are participating or just mental engagement and they feel somehow involved or a personal connection to it."

Mr. Porter, Mr. Brisson, and Ms. Cederholm are the ones in charge of evaluating all the programs and changing them, if necessary, to make sure there are hands-on and interactive aspects to the sites. The public doesn't want to be lectured at, Mr. Hokans said, but they want to feel involved in history.

"We are stewards of history," he said, "not only preserving it and protecting it, but presenting history to the public since 1895. What we did in 1895 or 1965 is different than 2009 because people's interests change."

An example of that is Historic Mill Creek near Mackinaw City. Where people might have been taken on a typical nature tour in the past, they are now strapped into a harness to ride an aerial cable ride over a pond like an eagle. Improvements, like the zip line and forest canopy walk that encourage guest interaction, were made to the site in June 2008, resulting in a 20% surge in attendance that summer. Another example of using guest interaction is at Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, where interpreters don't line up 40 people and demonstrate how well a historical interpreter can march, but, instead, the interpreters involve the crowd and show them how to march.

Another example is the Children's Days at Colonial Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City, Mr. Brisson said. Children's Days is a new special event offered four times over the summer. Many other historic sites have similar programs, but this is a first for Colonial Michilimackinac. Children's Days involve daily and domestic activities, such as cooking and candle-dipping, for children to participate in. There were also military activities and activities that demonstrated daily life for a child in the fort.

"Because they were, seemingly, so successful," Mr. Brisson said, "we may be doing more of those or adjusting some daily programming over there to try and do more of that on a daily basis."

More child-friendly interactive aspects are planned for Colonial Michilimackinac site, Mr. Brisson said.

The sites are evolving every year, Ms. Cederholm said, and they take into account what each group of guests have to say about the programs. What has been noticeable during audience evaluations, she said, is that people are genuinely entertained and educated. The staff uses the information they receive from the audience to continually improve the programs and exhibits.

"We ask for suggestions and we truly do use that in our planning exhibits and programs," she said. "We're always tweaking and doing different things."