The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center at NMU is hosting a new exhibition in its Gries Hall gallery titled “Through the Years: Mount Mesnard to Mount Marquette.” Students in an anthropology course taught by Scott Demel created and installed the exhibit. It features dozens of artifacts collected during many years of archeological digs at the site, photographs of the excavation and other artifacts, and interpretive panels.
Mount Marquette has a rather storied history, and hasn't always been known by the name it has now. In the Archaic period, and before European contact, it had a name from the indigenous people who lived there. After the French settled, it was called Mount Mesnard after Jesuit missionary Rene Menard. In the 1960s, it was changed to its current name, for the explorer Jacques Marquette.
Over the years, Mount Marquette has gone through many changes. In prehistoric times it was mined for Quartzite used for dart points. In the 1800s, it was mined for Red Sandstone by three men who were violently removed by the company from whom they leased the land. People now engage in hiking, biking and skiing on its slopes. These changes will be addressed in the exhibit.
Admission is free and the exhibition will be on display through Nov. 7. The Beaumier Center's expanded hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. To keep visitors and staff safe, facemasks are required and a limit of 12 people will be allowed in the gallery at one time.
Groups that would like to visit the exhibition should contact the Beaumier Center in advance at 227-3212 or heritage@nmu.edu.
The exhibition's original April launch was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Four students—Wilbert Alik, Morgan Armstrong, Charles Griffin and Sage Pletka—returned to campus in late July for the installation. Other students from Demel's anthropology course who worked on the project were Peter Conely, Juan Funes, Amber Lubbers, Emily Pfeiff, Hayley Pittman, Emily Thompson and Miranda Wood.