Contributed Special to the Tribune MACKINAC ISLAND — Mackinac State Historic Parks will hold a brief and informal Memorial Day Observance at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, May 31, beginning behind Fort Mackinac at the Avenue of Flags and heading to the Fort Mackinac Post Cemetery. “When we started interpreting this time period (the 1880s) we thought it would be an appropriate thing to do,” said Phil Porter, Mackinac State Historic Parks director emeritus. As Porter researched the 1880s, he discovered the Fort Mackinac soldiers halted service for the first time in 1883, when Captain Edwin Sellers suspended duty and held a Decoration Day, now Memorial Day, ceremony. According to Porter, Mackinac State Historic Parks began practicing the Memorial Day Observation ceremony more than 20 years ago as a result of the new interpretation of the 1880s U.S. soldier.