Sainte Anne Church

In 1670 Jesuit Father Charles Dablon founded a birchbark mission chapel on Mackinac Island. The following year, Father Jacques Marquette relocated the mission at Saint Ignace. Abandoned in 1706 and reestablished at Fort Michilimackinac around 1715, the new church was named Sainte Anne de Michilimackinac. During the winter of 1780-81, British troops relocated to the island and moved the church building across the ice. The parish is the nation’s oldest dedicated to Saint Anne, and maintains baptismal records dating from April 1695.