Father Marquette National Memorial pays tribute to the life and work of Jacques Marquette, French priest and explorer. The memorial is located in Straits State Park near St. Ignace in the modern-day U.S. state of Michigan, where he founded a Jesuit mission in 1671 and was buried in 1678.
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Admission here is included with Straits (or any other) State Park though, to be completely honest, we saw one other vehicle in the lot when we pulled up, and they were gone by the time we left about 30 minutes later.
There's a couple different places where you can get a pretty decent, unobstructed view of Mighty Mac. We followed what appeared to be a trail at the southern end, but it kind of opened up into a field which didn't entirely feel like it was part of the park, so we turned back around. In hindsight, it looks like you could walk all the way down to Bridge View Park, though you'd have to cross at least one intersection and walk along the road for a short distance.
The memorial to Fr. Marquette was also quite informative, discussing the really early history of French exploration in the area, including on down the...
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Nice big park and a short hike to the memorial and a bit longer to the overlook. The french priest and explorer is credited with being the earliest explorer in the area. As a missionary he learned the local languages, Apparently there was also a museum about his past, and it burned in 2000. The park is very nice, it has an amphitheater, with a couple over view spots that really give a nice view of the Mackinac bridge. Beware of the walk down to the monument and overlook, Its worth it, and remember - . It's uphill on the way back.. in case you weren't paying attention. Interesting early explorer...
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As of July 6, 2024 the park has its entrance blocked off for repairs to the memorial. However, at the Straights State Park ranger station they informed me that it was ok to enter. It is about a quarter of a mile walk to the site. A low frills place even before the museum burned down the memorial could use major renovation, but it is in a wonderful location and the interpretative trial intersects with some great views of the straits and bridge. Likely not worth a trip in itself but if you are in the St. Ignace area it’s nice place to pay respects to one of...
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