Early Missionary Bark Chapel

According to descriptions by Jesuit missionaries, the bark chapels which they built among the Indians of the Great Lakes looked like this. In such primitive huts, far from civilization, the courageous French “blackrobes” lived and sought to turn the minds of the savages to Christianity. One of this illustrious company, Father Claude Dablon, from the mission of Sault Ste. Marie, and later superior general of the Jesuits in Canada, wintered on Mackinac Island in 1670-71 and carried on missionary work here. It is to the memory of these heroic pioneer priests that this reconstruction of a bark chapel is dedicated.