A view from Fort Mackinac overlooking the harbor and the town on Mackinac Island. The yellow umbrellas is the cafe at the fort that has great views overlooking the town.
Mackinac Island, Michigan, is one of the top tourist destinations in the Midwest. Located just off the northern tip on the lower Michigan peninsula where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. It is a lot like visiting a history theme park and the location looks like something out of a movie that might take place in Europe rather than the United States.
You can do a lot in a day trip if you keep moving and get on the first ferries to the island in the morning. We thought it would be really cool to stay on the island for a couple days, but the priced on the island are very expensive.
A unique view of the Mackinac Bridge from the ferry boat between Mackinaw City and Mackinaw Island, which our ferry company did with the first ferry departing in the mornings. The bridge marks the dividing line between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and connects the upper peninsula (UP) of Michigan with the rest of the state.
The Rich History of Mackinac Island
It is the home of the rich and famous and more than 230 years of history. It was the site of military battles in the War of 1812, one of the nation’s first national parks, and the center of the Great Lakes fur trade.
The island is also unique and interesting because its is a preserved time capsule of life from a bygone era due to its reliance of horse drawn transport and a ban on automobiles.
Mackinac Island has a ban on automobiles, so horses are a primary mode of transport. This is a view of the main street in town with a horse drawn tour.
The town and British fort on the island in the Mackinac Straight were established in the 1780s during the American Revolution. A French fort was originally located on the shore in Mackinaw City. It was originally established as a French fur trading settlement, but became a British possession after England defeated the French in the 7 Years War. The British realized the location of the fort left it vulnerable to attack from the landward side, so the town and fort were both moved to the island a couple miles off the coast. The fort was turned over the the Americans after the the end of the Revolutionary War as part of the peace settlement.
It was used as a U.S. military based until the 1890s, when it was then one of the first national parks. The federal government turned the island over the State of Michigan to create its first state park.
The island is small, about 8 miles around if you ride a bike around the shore of the island. The island decided to ban the increasing number of annoying automobiles in 1898, as many of its rich residents were starting to bring the new technology onto the island. To this day, more than 120 years later, private automobiles are still banned on the island. The only exception is for emergency services.
Deliveries, taxis, street cleaners, tours of the island, all still use horse drawn transport. There are also hundreds of bicycles on the island, including for rent. Not unlike how it was in the 1890s when bicycles became a popular form of daily transportation across America prior to the advent of affordable automobiles.
The Grand Hotel is the crown jewel of Victorian opulence and still operates as the fanciest place on the island. There are also scores of bed and breakfasts and smaller hotels. It was the setting for the 1980 movie “Somewhere in Time” starting Christopher Reeve. Check the hotel website for information because if you just wanted to stop by to peek inside and to hang out for a rest on the grand terrace, they may charge you admission because it is such a popular site.
View of the Grand hotel on Mackinac Island. It was the filming site for several movies. So many tourists who are not guests want to walk through the hotel and its grounds that they now charge $10 a person to get a pass to visit.
The majority of businesses, tourist sites and activity is around the main port, where several ferry companies come it from both Mackinaw City and St. Ignace across the Mackinac Bridge in the Upper Peninsula. Most of the stores and places to see in town are along two streets that run about 5-8 blocks. The large historic military fort is on the cliff above the town.
Natural bridge arch on the east side of Mackinaw Island overlooking Lake Huron. The Michigan UP extending to the east and and Canada in the far distance can be seen across the water.
Visiting Fort Mackinac
The fort has a commanding view over the town and the harbor. It was captured from the Americans by the British in a surprise attack in the War of 1812. The Americans returned to attack the fort from ships in the harbor, and then with an overland assault, but were repelled by the British. The battlefield site can be visited on the island.
The fort was again given back to the Americans at the end of the war under the peace terms. The main fort is restored to what it looked like in the 1880s.
The view from the tea room at Fort Mackinac that offers spectacular views overlooking the town. It is open for lunch, but try to arrive early
There is a tea room at the fort that offers spectacular views overlooking the town. It is open for lunch, but try to arrive early or be prepared to wait a while for a table. For us it was worth the wait. We took turns waiting while part of our group explored seclude by sections of the fort. We sat and ate lunch and shot amazing photos of the harbor and town below while sipping a beer.
Admission into the fort also covers admission into several smaller museums in town and most of the museums back in Mackinaw City. We found the quality of all the museums, authenticity and the level of knowledge of the costumed reenactor interpreters to be very top notch. As a serious historian, I felt I received a good ROI for admission and the experience was well worth the price.
A costumed reenactor outside one of several small museums set up in historic buildings on Mackinac Island. This one down the hill from the fort explains the history of the fur trade and has an exhibit on the research of Dr. William Beaumont on the island.
The tourist trap that made fudge famous
Today, the Main Street of the island is packed with tourist shops, restaurants, a haunted theater, historical sites and fudge shops.
While fudge shops are a required part of every tourist trap town, Mackinac is diffident because it can claim being the original tour trap fudge stop. It was first made here for tourists starting in the 1880s, so it is possible all tourist trap fudge stores might trace their liniage back to Mackinac Island. There are 17 fudge stores on the Island and all give out free samples. Mackinaw City on the mainland has at least 6 more fudge shops.
Horse carriage tour good way to see Mackinac Island
We got off the boat and immediately walked a block or so from the dock to buy tickets for a horse carriage tour of the main part of the island. This allowed us to get the lay of the land, see many of the sites and get a short history of them from the carriage driver. It took us up the steep bluffs early in the day so we did not have to walk up them ourselves. You will see several of the oldest buildings on the island, the Grand Hotel, the large horse stables to support the island, the old cemeteries in the center of the island, skull cave and the natural arch. The carriage also stops on top of the bluffs in front of the fort entrance, which is where we got off to tour the fort. It was a lot easier after the fort to walk downhill to walk the rest of the town.
There are also several natural sites to visit on the island, including a natural stone arch, springs, cliffs and several unusual rock formations that each have a story behind them. We were able to see several of these and hear the stories from the carriage driver during our tour.
Bicycles line the main street at the port on Mackinac Island. Bikes can be rented for the day and allow visitors to tour the entire island.
Bikes can be rented on the island for those who want to peddle around the island and visit more remote sites. By the late afternoon, we found the Main Street of town lined with bicycles from everyone returning to town for the evening to catch dinner, drinks or a ferry back to the mainland.
The ferry ride to and from the island takes about 20 minutes. The straight can include rough water and wind, so even during the summer it might be wise to have a jacket or sweater. If you forgot one, there are several discount souvenir shops that sell sweatshirts, hoodies and jackets at cheap prices in downtown Mackiaw City, but they may have images of mountains or palm trees on them.
Williams Beaumont made history in medicine on Mackinac Island
One of the small museums in town has an exhibit on William Beaumont (Nov. 21, 1785 – April 25, 1853), who was a surgeon in the U.S. Army who on the island and became known as the “Father of Gastric Physiology.” He became famous for his research on human digestion by studying a patient who was accidentally shot in the stomach. When the patient Alexis St. Martin was first brought to him, he treated the wound but expected him to die, but he survived. However, the stomach wound never healed fully, which allowed Beaumont to experiment by dipping a string with food tied on the end into the stomach acid to watch how it dissolved. His revelations on digestion being mainly chemical and not mechanical changed medicine in the 1830s.
There is also a monument to Beaumont in the fort overlooking the town.
Find more up-to-date information and planning information on Mackinaw Island.
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