August 19, 2004

Mackinac Island, Mich.- The McMullen family of Cheboygan will play the part of a 1820s family in Mackinac State Historic Parks' newest exhibit, the Millwright's House at Historic Mill Creek. The family - Shawn, Carrie, Lexi and Zach - recently completed a video shoot for the project, and sat for a portrait in the spring.

The Millwright's House is scheduled to open in May of 2005. It will join a reconstructed water-powered sawmill and a workshop on the 625-acre site, considered one of the first industrial complexes in northern Michigan. Historic Mill Creek was originally developed in the 1790s, primarily to supply lumber for construction on Mackinac Island, and was rediscovered in the 1970s by amateur archaeologists Margaret Lentini and Mary and Ellis Olson of Cheboygan.

Exhibit designer David Kronberg tapped the McMullens to play the part of the millwright's family in a pair of elements in the new exhibit.

"Based on historic and archaeological records we've imagined a family that lived here in the early 19^th century," said Kronberg. "This family will help our guests bridge time and feel how vibrant, how different and yet how similar life on the frontier was in that period."

One way Kronberg will accomplish this is by having the family "materialize" in front of the millwright family's fireplace. This spring, the McMullens dressed in 1790s-style clothes and sat for a portrait by Brian Kirschensteiner, an artist living in Ovid, Michigan. Kronberg is very pleased with the finished portrait, which is now being photographed and reproduced on theatrical scrim in Toledo, Ohio.

"We want to convey details about life on the frontier of Northern Michigan," said Kronberg, "Eight short video vignettes organized by season illustrate these details as Shawn, Carrie, Lexi and Zach portray the millwright family."

"We had a lot of fun getting dressed up and acting like the millwright's family," said Shawn McMullen. "We were a little nervous when Dave sent us the scripts and we realized we were now going to be actors, but then it just turned out to be real fun."

Mackinac State Historic Parks is a family of living history museums and parks in Northern Michigan's Straits of Mackinac region and is an agency of the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries.  The sites include Fort Mackinac, Historic Downtown and Mackinac Island State Park on Mackinac Island, and Colonial Michilimackinac, Historic Mill Creek and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in Mackinaw City.  The sites are accredited by the American Association of Museums.  More information is available on the Web at www.mackinacparks.com, and by phone at (906) 847-3328 or (231) 436-4100.

Read more press releases from the Department of History, Arts and Libraries.