Jesuit missionaries built a small church on the shores of the Straits of Mackinac years before French soldiers built the nearby fort of Mchilimackinac. Although the church grew and expanded over the years, in 1743 carpenter Joseph Ainnse was hired to build a new parish church building after the mission was moved to L’arbre Croche. The new Church of Ste. Anne was a center of the French-Canadian community, serving the Catholic faithful even after the British arrived in 1761 and the Jesuits priests were recalled in 1765. The church was one of the first buildings moved to Mackinac Island in 1780. Although no longer housed in the 1743 church building, the parish of Ste. Anne’s remains active on Mackinac Island today.
Archaeologists excavated the church and adjacent cemetery in 1960. The church was reconstructed in 1964, and extensively renovated in 2010.
Exhibit panels describe the church’s role in daily life at Michilimackinac.
