Though each of the three areas settled by the French in Michigan was unique, they had similarities in construction and organization. Historians and archaeologists have been able to determine some characteristics of the settlements through examination of written documents from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and by archaeological investigations carried out in the 20th and 21st centuries, helping us to know about the lives of their inhabitants.
Forts and Villages
The forts were surrounded by palisades constructed of upright logs. At Michilimackinac, the palisade itself was a bit more than 300 feet per side. Inside it was a parade ground, called in French a place d’armes, a barracks building for the soldiers and other officers’ houses, around 40 houses for the traders who were headquartered here, a smithy, and a church. The Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit) palisade measured about one arpent (a French measure of distance, about 190 feet) per side of 12-foot-high upright logs, and enclosed quarters for soldiers and the fort’s commandant as well as civilians—traders and habitants (the French word for European settlers who focused on farming more than the fur trade).
Fort St. Joseph was organized in much the same way; archaeological investigations of the site have thus far revealed six European-style habitation structures that were occupied by fur traders and their families, as well as a possible well and other features like kitchen middens (refuse piles). Houses at these sites seem to have been built in the traditional French styles called poteau en terre and poteau sur sol, where upright logs are placed either directly in the ground or on a wooden sill, and the spaces between the logs are filled with clay or mud and straw.
There were not many people of European origin living in Michigan during the 17th and 18th centuries: in 1760, there were perhaps 1500 total in the upper Great Lakes region, with thousands more Native people. Population of European origin at these three sites in Michigan included soldiers and families of traders and habitants; those families often included both French and Natives, as traders often married Native women. Michilimackinac saw some thirty soldiers stationed at the fort, and around ten civilian families lived there year-round. In summer, the population grew exponentially, as traders congregated at this site of intense trading, bringing in furs they had acquired during the winter and manning the canoes that brought fresh supplies of goods, some intended for trade.
At Detroit, Cadillac initially brought with him some fifty soldiers and fifty traders and settlers. And by the fall of 1701, as many as 6000 Natives had come to live in the area, since Fort Pontchartrain was intended to become an important trade center for the French. A 1761 census shows more than 700 traders and farmers and their families living in Detroit at the time. As at Michilimackinac, the population around Fort Pontchartrain grew during trading season, from late spring to early fall. Records of Fort St. Joseph show that somewhere between 30 and 50 people lived at the fort, with many more Native people living in the vicinity of the fort.
Fur Trade, Food, and Farming
Though the French had several motivations for building forts and sending soldiers, traders, and habitants to the pays d’en haut, the major reason for their presence in Michigan and surrounding areas was to facilitate the fur trade. In the fur trade exchange, Native people trapped fur-bearing animals and traded them for manufactured items that the French in North America imported from Europe. This exchange, carried out first solely in Montreal and other St. Lawrence Valley towns and later in additional spots like Michilimackinac, Detroit, and Fort St. Joseph, brought to the Native people valuable items both utilitarian and decorative and provided the French with a commodity to be sold in Europe for the financial benefit of both businessmen and the French crown.
Among the goods traded to the Native people were cloth, metal articles such as kettles and knives, and decorative items like beads or bracelets. Furs and skins purchased by the French included beaver, bear, muskrat, mink, deer, and others. As the fur trade continued and the French demand increased, however, more and more animals were trapped for their fur, creating an imbalance that had not existed when Native people were trapping only enough to satisfy their needs.
The French brought their own food traditions when they came to live in the pays d’en haut, but climatic conditions throughout Michigan meant that they primarily adapted Native foods as the heart of their diet. They purchased corn (maize) from Native people, often treating it to remove the kernels’ husk, which made it more nutritious. Dried peas were easy to transport and could be made into soup for both voyageurs as they traveled and for habitants in the settlements. The French residents also ate fish and venison, perhaps preparing some of it in traditional Native ways. Some would have been dried in order to preserve it. Some foods like wheat, tea and coffee, or chocolate, were imported from larger population centers like Montreal; we know there were bread ovens outside the palisades of the fort at Michilimackinac.
Gradually the habitants began to grow other crops; residents of the Detroit area became exporters of wheat, and apple and peach orchards were developed there after the 1730s, when more habitants lived outside Fort Pontchartrain’s palisade. The farms developed by the habitants were laid out in a format typical of French North American land use, called “ribbon farms.” They were long and narrow, with the narrow edge, ranging from one to several arpents (one arpent = around 190 feet) wide, fronting on the river, and extending upwards of 100 arpents (nearly four miles) deep. On these lots, farming occurred away from the river and wood for cooking and heating could be obtained from the more distant forest.
Archaeology and the French Forts
Evidence from the archaeological digs at Michilimackinac and Fort St. Joseph shows the presence and intersection of European and Native cultures. Imported objects such as metal buttons, pottery, and glass tell us something about the lives of the French people living there. The presence of soldiers is indicated by uniform buttons and gun parts, and religious objects are evidence of the presence of Catholic priests and missionaries. Glass beads found at the sites were used as decoration by both Native people and French habitants, and there is evidence of re-purposing of imported objects by Native people in metal “tinkling cones,” used to decorate clothing, that were created from worn-out kettles. Written documents like notaries’ accounts, military reports, letters, and church records also tell of the work of other residents like blacksmiths, whose expertise was used to create and repair metal objects for both French and Native people, as well as recording baptisms and marriages, including unions of French men and Native women.
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