On October 5, 2011, an iron cannon barrel, corroded and covered with zebra mussels, broke the surface of the Detroit River for the first time in many years—but how many? Since 1984, six similar guns have been recovered from the same area—how and why did they come to be there?

Join maritime archaeologist Dan Harrison as he traces the paths that led these cannons to their watery fate. It is a tale of the militarization of the Great Lakes, as French, Native Americans, British, and Americans competed for control of economic resources and strategic waterways during the turbulent 18th century.

Daniel Harrison is a doctoral student in anthropology at Wayne State University and a reference librarian at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan. His 2012 Wayne State anthropology MA project led to the listing of a submerged road from the War of 1812 on the National Register of Historic Places, and its inclusion in 2014 as a unit of the River Raisin National Battlefield Park. His ongoing research centers on the maritime archaeology of the Great Lakes.

To learn more about the Michigan Archaeological Society, please visit: http://www.miarch.org/

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