Four at the Fort

One of the reasons we decided to come up to visit Fort Wilkins State Park was because my curiosity was piqued by an article in a RV magazine this spring.  Seeing historic forts and buildings are much more meaningful than reading a book (at least it is for me).  It is one thing to read about a place and a totally different thing to know you are standing in the same place as a 19th century soldier or post commander.

In the early 1840's copper was discovered on the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the government was concerned about keeping peace with the miners and the local Ojibwa Indian tribe.  The fort was built in 1844 on the northern tip of the peninsula, between Lake Superior and Lake Fannie Hooe.  The fort was occupied until 1846, abandoned for a few years, then re-occupied from 1867-1870.

View looking toward Lake Fannie Hooe.   Since there was no indoor plumbing, soldiers would carry buckets of water from the lake for doing laundry and bathing.  But they went to Lake Superior for their drinking water because they thought it tasted better. 

Each cabin had its own outhouse.  Guess that would eliminate standing in line, especially during the long and bitterly cold winter months.

 This metal sign is over the powder magazine.  The building had a concave ceiling and walls of stone.  If any ammunition accidentally went off, the roof would be demolished, but not the walls.

For some odd reason, the family cabins were outside the walled in complex.  If they were attacked, the women and children would be in harm's way.  That makes no sense to me at all.  But the fort was designed and built by MEN.  That says it all...

 Wash day meant soaking wash overnight in lye soap, rinsing, boiling in a large pot (except for wool), scrubbing and rinsing again.  That would have been hard work and hard on the hands.

 Don and Ron checked out the room where all the bread was baked.  The practical way to tell the temperature of the oven was to stick your hand well into it and count the number of seconds that you were able to keep it there!  This would be the place I'd want to be assigned to during the winter, that's for sure.

The bread bowl on the table gave the basic ingredients for baking bread for the 120 soldiers: 100 pounds of flour, 7 gallons of water, 1 pound of yeast and 1 1/2 pounds of salt.  Maybe the rest of the soldiers didn't make a lot in wages, but the bakers were rolling in dough!

 Terri stopped to read one of the many informational signs.  The blacksmith shop is behind her, on the right.

I loved one of the signs about 1844 kitchen philosophy, "Remember that beans, badly burned, kill more than bullets and fat is more fatal than powder."  He never had a chance to taste my chili.  Maybe he would have said the same thing!