A Visit To Mackinac Island

I was born and raised here in Michigan, and as a child, we traveled often to camp during the summer. We never did big trips to Disney, or trips to hotels. Our vacations always consisted of camping. Our favorite places to camp were always in the upper reaches of the lower peninsula, and the upper peninsula itself.

We crossed the Mackinac Bridge countless times, which stems between Mackinaw City, and Saint Ignace, and bridges the upper and lower peninsula together. We stopped at all the great sites along the way- Colonial Fort Michilimackinac, Castle Rock, Lake Huron & Lake Michigan, and many more places.

However, we had never taken the time (or money!) to cross to Mackinac Island, which is located closer to the upper peninsula side than the lower, and in the Lake Huron side of the bridge. Mackinac Island is famous for fudge, and the Grand Hotel, which sports the longest covered porch in the world.

Yesterday, my daughter had a field trip to Mackinac Island, and after arranging the money and babysitting, I was able to tag along! The trip was free for the kids, but it cost us adults $40 each, to cover our tickets to the various attractions, and the ferry over to the island.

Our trip started with us meeting at the school at 6:45 am. By that time, it was already warmed up enough that I didn't need a sweatshirt- a sign of a super warm day ahead! The bus ride was 3 hours, with one pit stop along the way.

When we got there, we were boarded onto a ferry, and my group of girls chose to sit up top. Now, on the shores of Lake Michigan, the temperature drops a bit, because of a welcoming cool breeze coming off the water. But, when you get on the ferry, and start traveling at the speed it does, it gets down right frigid, even if it was 80 out yesterday.

The benefit to the top of the ferry is that there are no windows- it's open air, no roof above us, which makes for great pictures. The ferry landing is located on Lake Huron, a straight shot to the east towards Mackinac Island. However, we took off aimed towards the west. To our surprise and excitement, the ferry drove under and wound around the Mackinac Bridge. We got some great pictures of the bridge up close, and we got to see the bridge underneath. We even saw a bridge worker walking the girding below the bridge, doing a check on something.

The day was extremly hazy, and I was on the wrong side of the boat for when we came into Mackinac Island's view, so I didn't see it right off the bat. When I finally did, the first thing I noticed was the historic Grand Hotel, which is visually impressive. It's painted white, and stretches out along 660 feet of Mackinac Island. The porch is completly covered, and runs the full length of the hotel, giving it the honor of having the worlds longest covered porch.

The hotel was constructed in 1887, the hotel features over 300 guest rooms- and no two are decorated alike. The hotel has been home to two movies, and 5 presidents have stayed at the secluded hotel.

As we passed through the harbor, I was rather shocked at the sheer number of buildings. It seemed quite crowded with shops in the harbor area, which is known as downtown Mackinac. The island itself is very hilly, with a great arched back. The indians of the area gave the island it's first name- Michilimackinac, which means Land of the Great Turtle. The legand is that a great turtle raised up from the depths of Lake Huron, to sun its back. It fell asleep, and soon great trees formed, and animals came to use the area as a shelter from the bitter colds found in the Straits of Mackinac.

When the French heard the name, they renamed the island to Mackinac Island, adding the C in reference to the way the French spell many things. The city of Mackinaw, however, was given a W when the British named it, which leads to much confusion by people when spelling the two. It's the Mackinac Bridge, Mackinac Island, and Mackinaw City.

The center of the island is quite a few feet above water level, and has homes dotted through out it. Large victorian homes line the hills. These are both rental homes, and the homes of the summer & year round residents. Included is the summer home of Michigan's Governor. The home was sold to the state of Michigan years ago for $15,000- the price of the materials used to build it. It was sold at the amazing cost by the original builder and owner, who took quite a bite on the value of the home.

In the sale slip, he made a provision for future owners- should the state ever sell the home, it can not ask for more than $15,000 for the residence. As the home is now worth several millions of dollars, I find it difficult to believe Michigan will sell the property any time soon.

As we unboarded the ferry, we were immediatly greeted by a long horse drawn covered carriage, which we boarded. This was our carriage tour, which took us through down town, then up to Surrey Hill. At Surrey Hill, we left the carriage, and entered a large building that sported a few shops, as well as a carriage muesuem of sorts. It included a carriage style fire truck, a carriage herse, and several other early versions of the carriages found on the island.

If I have not mentioned it before, I should now- Mackinac Island is very unique in that motorized vehicles are not allowed. The exceptions being an ambulance, and fire trucks. These are stowed away unless needed. The main mode of transportation on the island is carriage, bike, or foot.

We had about 30 minutes to explore Surrey Hill, which was basically just the shops. The kids were eager to spend money, so my group did some shopping. We passed on the fudge shop, because we didn't want to drag fudge with us everywhere we went during the day.

Soon, it was time to depart. We entered a new carriage- the worlds longest horse drawn carriages, which had 7 or 8 rows, and fit 5-6 people to a row. Jayco, the RV company, made just 18 of them. 17 of them are on Mackinac Island. The company kept the 18th for bragging rights, and is on display at their company headquarters.

These carriages were drawn by 3 horses, and took us into the woods, which are state park property. We heard some facts about the island, including that camp fires are not allowed anywhere on the island. The reason for this is that the wooded area is so dense and covering on the island, that if a fire broke out and grew out of control, it's estimated it would take a mere 6 hours to destroy the entire island in fire.

We wound through the woods, and soon came upon Saint Anne's Catholic Cemetary. This cemetary was originally located in the downtown area, until Saint Anne's ran out of room. The cemetary was  relocated to the center of the island, in the woods.

At this point, the church left the actual moving of the bodies to the families of the departed. Because of this, many of the bodies were never actually moved, just the head stones. This cemetary is rather exclusive. You can only be buried in it if you are a member of St. Anne's Catholic Church, as well as having been born on Mackinac Island, or having been a resident for at least 15 years, or having owned a business on Mackinac Island for at least 15 years.

If you did not meet the catholic requirements, you would be buried in the St Anne's Protestant Cemetary, located right across the path. When the cemetary was moved in the 1920's, stone arches were constructed with iron gates at the front and rear. The gates spelled out St Ann's Catholic Cemetary. The name Anne was misspelled without the E at the end. In addition, the gates were measured to fit a carriage and a team of horses. However, they were never measured to include a person driving the carriage. As such, these gates were never used. Pathways were made to go around the gates.

After leaving the two cemetaries behind, we passed a cave called Skull Cave. Skull Cave was an indian burial ground. During the Pontiac Uprising of 1763, a fur trader named Alexander Henry was shown the cave as a place to hide. He was told the indians would not look there, as it was a sacred place. In his diary, he wrote that the cave was uncomfortable, due to sticks and stones. Come morning, he found to his dismay that they were not sticks and stones, but rather skulls and bones. He survived the uprising- one of the only island inhabitants to do so, and he named the cave Skull Cave.

Shortly after that, we made it to Arch Rock, which is a natural rock formation that arches out from a cliff, and down to the ground level. The arch is beautiful. It's said that if you suck on a peice of the rock, you'll have good luck. We did not do that. I got a gorgeous picture of the Lake Huron shoreline, though, and I got a picture of Raegan and I together.

After this, we loaded back onto the carriage tour, and ended our tour at Fort Mackinac, which over looks the front of the island, and the downtown area. In 1780, the generals at Fort Michilimackinac, located on mainland in Mackinaw City, decided to move the highly penetratable fort to the less penetratable cliffs of Mackinac Island.

Now, because it would take months to build each of the buildings at the new fort, it was decided to literally move the buildings themselves across the water, and onto the island. The fort as it stands today includes the actual buildings moved over, in rather great shape. The fort was built high into the hills to over look the harbor, high enough up to be out of cannon range from any ships aiming at it. Anything not moved to the island was burned.

In addition to the high altitude of the fort, it was built with a limestone wall that is up to 6 feet deep in many areas, and forms a protective wall around the lower reaches of the fort. This wall is topped with a tall spear shaped log wall.

Fort Mackinac is the home to the British during the American Revolution. The fort was still under British command 13 years after the American's won the revolution, due to the remote location. In 1796, the Americans siezed control of the fort. In the war of 1812, the fort was site to the first land engagement. The British recaptured the fort. The Americans were out numbered 4 to 1, and the Americans surrendered the fort easily. In 1814, we attempted to recapture the fort, but failed. The fort was returned to America when the war ended, and it remained an active fort until 1895.

We got to see a live cannon display. The cannon is shot off once an hour, on the half hour, and we made it to the fort just in time to see it done. After that, we explored a few buildings, and caught a rifle display. By then, the girls were getting restless, and we were on our own until our ferry left at 3, so we went into the gift shop for a quick shopping spree, then walked down the massive hill to the Downtown shops.

The girls wanted fudge first, so we checked that off the list. Unfortunatly, they also wanted ice cream, which limited our ability to shop, as most stores do not allow food or drink into them. We walked around downtown while they ate their ice cream, then each of the girls picked 1 store. We found a lot of neat items, and got many more pictures taken.

By the time we rounded off our shopping trip, it was only 10 minutes until we were supposed to meet up with the groups, so we picked a shop directly across from the boat launch, and looked around, then used a bathroom before lining up to enter the ferry.

The ferry back did not go under the bridge, and we rode in the bottom where the windows don't allow for much picture taking anyway, especially with the water splashing up around the windows. We arrived back at Mackinaw City quickly, and boarded the bus.

We were now aimed for Colonial Fort Michilimackinac, which is located right next to the Mackinac Bridge. In fact, the Welcome Center is under the bridge. Needless to say, we got some fantastic pictures of the bridge.

The fort is a recreation, first and foremost. As I mentioned earlier, the buildings were moved to the island, and what wasn't moved, was burned. The recreation is historically accurate based on archeological digs on the area to find foundations, and artifacts. It is a dig that started in 1959, and has been ongoing ever since. It is the longest running archeological dig in North America.

At the Fort, we saw another demonstration of a cannon, and a Muskat demonstration. After that, we had only 15 minutes left to explore the various buildings, and to see two active dig sites. When the sites are completed, and the teams know which building goes where, they construct new buildings. They expect that by 2010, there will be at least 3 to 4 new buildings in place, in their original location.

Fort Michilimackinac was home to the French, and the British at various points in history. When it was torn down to be moved to Mackinac Island, the reason was because of how close it was to the water, with only wooden spear fencing to protect it. It was well within cannon range, and could easily be destroyed.

I would give you some historical facts, but quite honestly, I was dead tired by this time, and wasn't paying fantastic attention to detail anymore. It had been a long day!

After leaving the fort, we ate a quick packed dinner at the park just outside of it, with a great view of the Mighty Mac, and then boarded the bus for our trip home.

All in all, it was fantastic finally going to the island, but it was also great seeing things I hadn't seen since I was a child. I was probably 10 the last time I went to  or through Mackinaw City, or across the bridge. I really enjoyed it, and want to make sure to go back again with the whole family. I think it would make a great vacation!

If you've never been to these areas, and ever find yourself able to make the trip, I recommend it.