Father Marquette Mission Park

The museum stands right beside the location of Father Marquette's gravesite and the location of his 1671 mission. Pere Jacques Marquette's grave was discovered at this site in the spring of 1877. A garden was erected five years later to protect the site. The garden includes a statue of Marquette commissioned by the Knights of Columbus in 1957, a fountain and the grave of Father Marquette himself. The grave is marked showing where the altar for the original mission was. The grave marker was erected in 1901 when the grounds exchanged hands from a Jesuit priest to the University of Detroit.
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The Father Marquette Mission Park and the surrounding grounds are archaeological sites and are registered as a National Historic Landmark, Michigan Historical Site and on the National Register of Historical Places.