Michigan History Center staffers clean and prepare exhibits and other features for the coming summer season at Fayette Historic State Park in Delta County. Shown here is Troy Henderson, historian. (Michigan History Center photo)

If you had told me when I was working on my public relations degree that one day I would be vacuuming flies out of a 19th-century machine shop, I probably would’ve looked at you a little funny. But here I am.

In early May, I, along with some of my coworkers at the Michigan History Center, made the five-hour trek north to one of the center’s historic sites, Fayette Historic Townsite, located within Fayette Historic State Park in Delta County.

Of the center’s 12 historic sites and museums, seven of them, including Fayette, require a spring site installation, fondly referred to as “installs” by staff at the Michigan History Center.

Each install requires a team of three to six staff members to clean buildings, reset exhibits and artifacts, and put in new exhibits. Install teams, led by a professional collections curator, are made up of center staff from a variety of positions who volunteer to help.

Meet the team: Angela Riedel, registrar, Troy Henderson, Fayette’s site historian, Sheri Giffin, administrative assistant, Craig McGeachie, graphic designer, Jillian Reese, curator of exhibits, and Shelby Laupp, communications coordinator.

What is Fayette?

Along the shore of the Upper Peninsula’s Big Bay De Noc sits the site of a late 19th-century iron-smelting town. The town of approximately 500 produced nearly 230,000 tons of pig iron ingot between 1867 and 1891. When the Jackson Iron Co. ceased smelting operations in 1891, the town quickly faded.

When it was acquired by the State of Michigan in 1959, the townsite was given a new purpose: to allow visitors to step back in time and explore what it was like to live in an industrial community in the late 19th century.

In partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Division, which is responsible for the management of the site and buildings, the Michigan History Center oversees the interpretation and artifacts of Fayette.

Given its remote location and the U.P.’s harsh winters, Fayette Historic Townsite’s visitor season is limited to early May through late October. During the colder months, the 150-plus-year-old buildings sit closed along the frigid bay.

When the weather begins to warm and the tourist season approaches, the Michigan History Center team is tasked with getting the townsite ready to tell its story.

Under the direction of Angela and Troy, our team tackled the following to-do list:

– Clean the 10 buildings open to the public.

– Unpack and stage artifacts in their exhibits.

-Install new exhibits.

“We got lucky with the weather this time,” Troy said. “Usually, it’s rainy, windy and chilly. This time, we had sunshine and warm temperatures. However, with the sun shining down on us, we had to fight through massive clouds of mayflies.”

To make the most of the short time we had to get the site ready, our team divided and conquered.

Dead flies, dust and mouse droppings

While closed for the winter, the historic buildings often become home to flies, spiders, other bugs and mice. These critters don’t give off the most welcoming feeling, so our team worked quickly to clean up their mess. Plenty of bugs were sucked up in handheld vacuums, and spider webs were carefully swept from the ceilings.

Each building needed a good sweep (or two). Artifacts that remained in their exhibits over the winter were carefully inspected and cleaned off by Angela, the collections lead for this install.

The Plexiglass, which encloses and protects the exhibits and artifacts, was covered with smudges, dust and dead bugs. All Plexi, including some covering interpretive signs, had to be cleaned.

Among all the buildings at Fayette, there are more than 50 panes of Plexi, some extending from floor to ceiling. Additionally, the building windows must be treated with a cleaner that can safely clean the glass but not damage the window framing.

Due to time restrictions, deep clean treatments rotate annually between buildings. That means, quite literally, getting on our hands and knees to scrub.

“The Barbershop was due for a deep clean this year,” Sheri said. “It might seem simple, but getting around artifacts, large pieces of furniture and display cases is no easy task. While Angela carefully used an electric floor cleaner, I grabbed a paper towel and some cleaner and got to work on the corners.”

It might seem like a quick list of chores, but with 10 expansive buildings, limited time and staff, countless artifacts to work around and historic buildings to take good care of, it takes days to complete all the cleaning.

History on display

There are more than 1,000 artifacts on display at Fayette. There’s a variety of furniture, books, toys, and glass and ceramic dishes. My favorite one? The last known remaining guest key from Shelton House, Fayette’s hotel.

The Michigan History Center strives to protect all the artifacts in its collections. During the off-season, those artifacts that can withstand cold temperatures and won’t become a snack for a mouse remain in their exhibit cases. Unnecessarily moving artifacts can lead to more damage than leaving them in place.

However, some artifacts cannot be left in their cases. At the end of the visitor season, items such as textiles must be removed and stored in a secure facility. Our team carefully took those artifacts out of storage and placed them back in their displays.

Certain displays are changed every few years. The parlor in the Fayette superintendent’s house changes to demonstrate one of two life events: a wedding or a funeral. This year, the parlor represents a house during the mourning of a child. Sadly, several of Fayette’s superintendents lost children while working in the town.

“I had never set up the funeral exhibit before,” Angela said. “It was interesting to learn more about funeral customs as we worked in the parlor.”

Historically, pictures and mirrors or any reflective surfaces were draped with black fabric – mourning customs dictated that you didn’t want to see yourself in any reflection.

An abundance of flowers was typically placed in the parlor to mask the smells surrounding death. During this time, mourning was a longer, more visible process than we are accustomed to now. The length of the mourning period depended on the depth of one’s relationship with the deceased person.

Digging for history

Our trip to Fayette had a dual purpose. On top of the typical tasks, Craig and Jillian worked to install Phase Two of a new exhibit.

The new exhibit tells the story of the 1991 archaeology dig conducted on the site of the hotel’s two-story privy, which was an outhouse attached to the hotel by a catwalk accessible off the second floor.

Check out a sidebar story on the privy dig.

Archaeologists from Michigan Technological University conducted the dig, during which they found nearly 9,000 artifacts – and they only excavated half of the site.

In the hotel, Craig and Jillian installed more than 15 interpretive labels that guide visitors through the excavation and its findings. The pair fabricated, designed and set up multiple display cases that include items found in 1991.

The exhibit even includes a scale model of the excavation, built by one of our collections curators, Eric.

In addition, they set up a lab exhibit that mirrors the one that archaeologists used after their excavation of the privy site. More than 150 artifacts are displayed in the lab alone. They range from a mostly assembled water pitcher to medicine bottles – all unearthed more than 30 years ago.