[1] Marquette built a small log cabin at this site to serve as a chapel, and ministered to the Native Americans in the area, in particular the Petun.

[6] In 1674, Marquette joined Louis Jolliet on an exploration journey to trace the route of the Mississippi River.

[1] The party overwintered on the shore of Lake Michigan in what is now Chicago; however, Marquette's health had suffered on the trip, and he died in 1675 while returning to his St. Ignace mission.

[8] A new chapel was built in approximately 1674, and by 1683 the mission was so successful and prosperous that three priests, Fathers Nicholas Potier, Enjalran, and Pierre Bailloquet, were assigned there.

[8] The St. Ignace mission remained open until 1705, when it was abandoned and burned by Father Étienne de Carheil.

[6] A marble statue was erected at the site in the early 20th century,[6] and the area was designated a city park to commemorate Marquette.

[5] The use of the second mission chapel was discontinued in 1905, when services moved to the newly constructed St. Ignatius Loyola Church.

[10] The church was adapted as a historical museum displaying artifacts from early St. Ignace,[10] and was operated by the Knights of Columbus.

[6] More modern archaeological investigations have been carried out at the mission site and the contemporaneous nearby Petun village, particularly in the early 1970s and 1980s.

[12] Exhibits focus on Ojibwa cultural values and subsistence methods, as well as the effects that the migration of Huron and Odawa peoples had in the area.

[6] Lyle M. Stone (1972), Archaeological investigation of the Marquette Mission site, St. Ignace, Michigan, 1971: a preliminary report, Mackinac Island State Park Commission, ISBN 9780911872170