Historic Mackinac

reader. The hope has been that as the years go by, the bringing together of this material relating to Mackinac, may prove an aid to those seeking information concerning one of the most historic places on the American continent.

Possibly Historic Mackinac may add something to that interest which in the last few years has so rapidly increased in this region of rare fascination. As an integral part of the Old Northwest, the Mackinac country may justly partake in its invitation to the scholar and its interest for the layman in the following evaluation made by the late Professor Hinsdale of the University of Michigan, who says:

"Save New England alone, there is no section of the United States embracing several States that is so distinct an historical unit, and that so readily yields to historical treatment, as the Old Northwest. It is the part of the Great West first discovered and colonized by the French. It was the occasion of the final struggle for dominion between France and England in North America. It was the theatre of one of the most brilliant and far-reaching military exploits of the Revolution. The disposition to be made of it at the close of the Revolution is the most important territorial question treated in the history of American diplomacy. After the war, the Northwest began to assume a constantly increasing importance in the national history. It is the original public domain, and the part of the West first colonized under the authority of the National Government. It was the first and the most important Territory ever organized by Congress. It is the only part of the United States ever under a secondary constitution like the Ordinance of 1787. No other equal part of the Union has made in one hundred years such progress along the characteristic lines of American development."