The Catholic Church maintained a monopoly on blacksmithing in French Canada, using blacksmiths to generate revenue for church activities. The blacksmith thus worked for the Michilimackinac priest. By the mid-1760s this shop was one of several at Michilimackinac, and it was probably dismantled around 1765.
The blacksmith shop was excavated in 1967 and reconstructed in 1970. Today it is set up as the blacksmith shop would have looked with an interpretive panel inside.
