Beginning in 1715, when the French built the fort, enlisted soldiers lived in rented homes rather than official quarters. British officers complained about this situation when they arrived at Michilimackinac in 1761, and in 1769 carpenters finally arrived to build a formal barracks for the British garrison. When complete, the log barracks contained four rooms, each of which contained a fireplace and housed 12 to 16 men. Soldiers slept, cooked, ate, and relaxed in their barracks rooms. The British moved the barracks to Fort Mackinac in 1780-81. Although in increasingly poor condition, the British and later the Americans used the building until 1828, when it was demolished to make way for a new barracks.
Archaeologists excavated the barracks in 1959, and it was one of the first buildings reconstructed in 1960.
Featuring the Redcoats on the Frontier exhibit. British soldiers marched into Michilimackinac in the fall of 1761 following victory over French and Indian forces in the Seven Years War. This exhibit explores who the soldiers were who lived here, thousands of miles from home, in a multi-room exhibit.
