Remains of the boat house (left) and main house.

The first day on the site went pretty smoothly. We all went to Wayne Lusardi’s office and met everyone who we're going to be working with for the next few days. Afterward, we loaded up the car and got the boat set up and headed over to Rockport, Michigan and the loading dock. Once we finally got to Middle Island we unpacked everything and walked around to get a feel for what was still there. The main structure and boathouse are pretty much there, but a lot on its side. So we just took kind of a quick glance of it and moved on to see what else was left. After the main and boat house, we walked toward the woods and found a couple of cabins that were once there. Once we got a quick feel for the area we tool a break for lunch to discuss what we were going to do next. We finished lunch and decided to walk over the land surface again and mark all the remains that were left behind, like pots and pans, parts of buildings, and (in one case) a smoking pipe. After about a hour or two of walking around the area and marking the objects left behind, we packed up and headed home for the day.

Ryan Riordan