Megan McCullen of Michigan State University arrived in the Town of The Blue Mountains on July 2nd with local archaeologists Charles and Ella Garrad to learn more about the more than 2000 Petun peoples who populated Blue Mountain 400 years ago.

McCullen's dissertation is on the Petun population circa 1670 - 1700 when the group had joined neighboring allies and relocated from Craigleith to the villages near the Jesuit Mission of St. Ignace in Northern Michigan.

McCullen is comparing the earlier sites in Craigleith to their later American site by looking at the artifacts left behind such as stone tools, pottery and French trade goods. The archaeologists visited the Craigleith Heritage Depot to examine the display on Collingwood chert, a toolstone used and traded by native peoples of the area for the last 10,000 years.

"It's great to be able to come back to the homeland of the Petun and see where everyone lived before they fled further west. There is so much history and archaeology in Craigleith that I don't think I could ever see it all." says McCullen.

The archaeological sites at Craigleith are currently protected by the Ministry of Culture and have recently been publicly recognized by Chief Janith English of the Wyandotte Nation of Kansas as being the origin of the Wyandotte Nation.

The Craigleith Heritage Depot is scheduled to be open to the public in September of 2008 and has already received many international research inquires into their collections.

For more information about Depot programs and services and volunteer opportunities, please contact Suzanne Ferri, Curator, at 705-446-2201or sferri@thebluemountains.ca.