Marquette Mission Site - St. Ignace, Michigan

1877 - Father Jacker

Father Edward Jacker, the local Jesuit priest at the time, responded to the invitation of a local farmer to examine what was suspected to be the remains of the Jesuit mission. As the land was being cleared for cultivation a limestone foundation was unearthed. The possibility that this might be the mission and final resting place of Father Marquette quickly found its way into newspapers throughout Michigan and drew many visitors to St. Ignace.

In the Jesuit Relations, Father Dablon indicates that Marquette’s bones were buried in the center of the church. Jacker found no evidence of burial in this location. However, he did find a cellar-like depression and artifacts that included, spikes, nails, an iron hinge, pieces of timber and posts, birch bark, and two small fragments of burnt bone and other evidence of burning. This depression was interpreted as the burial vault of Father Marquette and the two bone fragments his remains. While Jacker was attending to his religious duties a young man discovered over thirty more small bone fragments and a local physician declared these to be burnt human bone.

Many questions and much skepticism surrounded the findings of Jacker’s excavation and the subsequent discovery of bone. Jesuits today appear to have accepted that the Jacker excavation produced the remains of Marquette. From an archaeological perspective, the evidence that the “vault” is part of the mission and that the bones recovered are those of Father Marquette is inconclusive at best. Given Stone’s subsequent excavations it appears that some French occupation probably did occur in this area. However, the placement of the vault (or cellar) does not correspond with the historical documentation of Marquette’s burial and the fragments of burnt bone, totaling less than an ounce in weight (the longest of which is 1.25 inches), could just as easily have been from some other occupant of the community – if the fragments are indeed human.