Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: reconstruction

Colonial Michilimackinac; a reconstructed fort/trading post on the Straits of Mackinac by The Bridge . 8/5/2011.

On the right side, the farther house is the Piquet House; the nearer one is labeled British Trader's House. They call the farther building on the left the Priest's House. These names have historical justification, though they are simplifications of a complicated reality. Colonial Michilimackinac, on the Mackinac Straits, is a reconstruction of a walled village which was originally built by French traders around 1715. The complex was occupied by the British Army in 1761, who coexisted with the traders. The British destroyed the fort in the early 1780s, deeming it indefensible, moving the buildings and residents to Mackinac Island. The reconstruction's based on archeological research which occurs at the site every summer, so the building locations can be assumed to be accurate; so, for the same reason, are the room arrangements. I'm pretty sure the buildings themselves are, at best, educated guesses, as are their specific contents. It's a neat place, even if I take the details with a grain of salt. The historical displays and knowledgable costumed staff make it among the best museums I know, and the archeologists seem to consider talking with the tourists to be part of their job. I've been visiting it occasionally nearly as long as I can remember.

Reconstructed North West Company trading headquarters in extreme northeastern Minnesota. Since the NWC was a Canadian firm, it wasn't particularly welcome at this location, and moved north in 1802. This reconstruction dates from the 1950s. Reconstructions of historic buildings are not currently fashionable, so this complex is a bit of an anomoly within the National Parks system. It's a little misleading; there's the stockade, three buildings, logs marking the locations of a couple more structures, and a couple gardens; outside the fence there are mockups of voyageur and Indian settlements which are much smaller than the originals they are standing in for. The overall effect is rather parklike, and pleasant, but it lacks the bustle and interest of what was certainly a small village within the stockade; there were nearly twenty buildings in the place in the late eighteenth century. What is there is absolutely delightful. Where Colonial Michilimackinac, a similar place, overwhelms you with buildings and explanations, this monument maximizes its impact by concentrating on getting some crucial details just right. Reenactors serve as hosts and move comfortably between their historical personas and their modern selves, and the buildings house some carefully selected artifacts, arranged pretty much as you'd expect them to be arranged in a real trading post. The larger building, on the right, is the great hall; the smaller building is the kitchen which fed the traders and company officers when they were at the headquarters. The third building, a boat house, is outside the stockade.