Each town has traded claim, counterclaim and less than gentlemanly accusations back and forth. And while the issue has recently been dormant, historical markers proclaiming to be the site still reside 60 miles apart.
Born to a wealthy French family, Marquette abandoned a comfortable aristocratic life to join the Jesuit order and spread the Gospel among the Indian tribes of New France. Arriving in Quebec in 1668, in two years he had learned six distinct Native American dialects.
In May of 1675 he was taken ill. Realizing he was near death, he selected a picturesque site on a bluff overlooking the eastern shore of Lake Michigan as the place to spend his final hours.
Instructing his companions to bury him at the site and erect a cross, he died within hours. Two years later, Christian Indians retrieved his remains and transported them to the church at St. Ignace. His remains now reside at Marquette University.
Ludington’s claim as the original death site and the town’s lavish celebrations of the anniversary of Marquette’s death seemed to put Frankfort’s claim to rest. Then in 1960, an amateur historian and resident of Frankfort, Catherine Stebbins, produced a thoroughly researched study that presented a strong case for Frankfort’s claim as the true death site.
The Michigan Historical Commission then acknowledged Frankfort as the probable death site and sanctioned a historical marker at Frankfort.
The debate resurfaced. The Coast Guard, Marquette University, geologists, anthropologists and linguists were consulted.
