Tuesday meeting to seek public input on Father Marquette Shrine.

Photo by Todd Reed, used with permission.

Tuesday meeting to seek public input on Father Marquette Shrine.

#MasonCountyNews.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

LUDINGTON — Pere Marquette Charter Township will hold a special meeting Tuesday, Jan. 23, at L.F. Peterson Auditorium, 508 N. Washington Ave., to seek public input on the topic of the future of the Father Marquette Shrine. The shrine (also called a “memorial” by the township), has come under fire recently by some groups that advocate separation of church and state, charging that the memorial is a state-sanctioned religious symbol because it includes a large cross.

The shrine was built in the 1950s as a memorial to Father (Pere in French) Jacques Marquette, a French missionary who died near what is now Ludington, on the Buttersville Peninsula, in the 1670s. Marquette is one of the best known early explorers of the Great Lakes region and is memorialized officially by the state of Michigan in St. Ignace as well as Mackinac Island. The Buttersville Peninsula site has been established for several hundred years as the site of Marquette’s death and his original burial site. His remains were eventually relocated to St. Ignace.

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The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Mason County Press will be live streaming the meeting on its Facebook page.