The state of Michigan has approved $2 million for the education center under construction at the River Raisin National Battlefield Park.

The funding will help build a state-of-the art and innovative complex to educate visitors, said Scott Bentley, superintendent of the park since 2011.

“I’m incredibly grateful to Sen. Dale Zorn and the Legislature for this funding,” Bentley said Thursday. “I’m excited with the announcement and will be even more excited when the governor signs it. We’ve been working on these exhibits for eight years. We’ve only barely begun to scratch the surface. This will leverage additional resources and technology to bring the education center to life.”

The senate passed Senate Bill 82, which is the proposed general omnibus budget and includes the park funding. Backers said the governor is expected to OK the spending plan. Zorn said he’s been working to secure funding specifically for the center for four years.

“It’s great to see this investment finally being made,” the lawmaker said last week. “This budget focuses on getting people back to work, supporting our direct-care workers, fixing local bridges, reducing debt and keeping our communities safe – all without raising taxes.”

Bentley said he has been working with teachers from southeast Michigan and with a team of local experts to design and create exhibits for the center to show visitors the history of the battlefield today, more than 200 years after the Battles of the River Raisin in 1812-1813. 

The building that houses the center is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. However, only the large lobby and a state-of-the-art theatre are currently open to visitors. A real eye-catcher in the lobby is a 32-foot-long, glass-enclosed diorama, or floor map, of the early Frenchtown settlement along the River Raisin. The display with miniature buildings and figures gives viewers a look into the homes and stockades of militia and volunteers, many of whom perished in the battles.

Bentley said he has a binder with more than 300 pages of drawings, concepts, and teacher sketches for planned exhibits in the center that were created during summer workshops that have been held since 2007.

The center being developed in the former north ice arena portion of the building contains about 6,000 square feet. It tells the story of the clash of cultures and the push for westward expansion among settlers from 1600 to 1813. It contains a modern theatre and auditorium that holds 154 seats that takes up about 2,500 feet in the northeast corner of the center.

There was a time when the battle cry “Remember the Raisin!” packed a lot of emotional heat. In January 1813, a British and Indian force destroyed an American army on the north bank of the Raisin River in southeastern Michigan.