Mackinac Island (/ˈmækənɔː/ MAK-ə-naw, locally /ˈmækənə/ MAK-ə-nə; French: Île Mackinac; Ojibwe: Mishimikinaak ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ; Ottawa: Michilimackinac) is an island and resort area covering 4.35 square miles (11.3 km²) in the U.S. state of Michigan. The island’s name in Odawa is Michilimackinac, and in Ojibwemowin it is Mitchimakinak, which means "Great Turtle." It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to an Odawa settlement and earlier indigenous cultures before European colonization began in the 17th century. It was an important place for the fur trade around the Great Lakes. Fort Mackinac, built on the island by the British during the American Revolutionary War, was based on a former trading post. The island was the site of two battles during the War of 1812 before the U.S. gained control of the area.

In the late 19th century, Mackinac Island became a popular tourist destination and summer home. Many buildings on the island have been carefully preserved and restored. Because of its historical importance, the entire island is listed as a National Historic Landmark. The island is known for many cultural events, a variety of architectural styles, including the Victorian-era Grand Hotel, and a rule that most motor vehicles are not allowed, except for city emergency vehicles (ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks), city service vehicles, and snowmobiles in winter. More than 80 percent of the island is protected as Mackinac Island State Park.

Etymology

The name of Mackinac Island, like many places in the Great Lakes region, comes from a Native American language called Ojibwe. The Anishinaabe people who lived near the Straits of Mackinac compared the island’s shape to a turtle and called it "Mitchimakinak" (Ojibwe: mishimikinaak), meaning "Big Turtle." Andrew Blackbird, a government interpreter and the son of an Odawa chief, explained that the island was named after a tribe that once lived there. French people wrote the name as "Michilimackinac," and the British later shortened it to "Mackinac." Other spellings of the name include Mishinimakinago, Mǐshǐma‛kǐnung, Mi-shi-ne-macki naw-go, Missilimakinak, Teiodondoraghie, and in Ojibwe syllabics: ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ.

The Menominee people traditionally lived in a large area covering 10 million acres (40,000 km²), stretching from Wisconsin to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In 1878, Father Frederic Baraga, a Slovenian missionary in Michigan, wrote that the Menominee word for "turtle" is "Maehkaenah." In 1952, John Reed Swanton recorded in his book The Indian Tribes of North America that the Menominee were also known as "Misi'nimäk Kimiko Wini'niwuk," or "Michilimackinac People," near the old fort at Mackinac, Michigan.

In an 1887 history of Mackinac Island, Andrew Blackbird, an Odawa historian, described that a small tribe called "Mi-shi-ne-macki naw-go" once lived on the island. This tribe later joined the Ottawa people from what is now Manitoulin Island, north of Lake Huron. During one winter, the Mi-shi-ne-macki naw-go on Mackinac Island were nearly killed by the Seneca people from western New York, who were part of the Iroquois Confederacy. Only two of the island’s Native residents survived by hiding in natural caves. To honor the lost tribe, the Ottawa people named the island "Mi-shi-ne-macki-nong."

In 1895, John R. Bailey, a doctor at Fort Mackinac, wrote a history titled Mackinac formerly Michilimackinac. He described early French traders who arrived on the island in 1654, traveling with a group of Huron and Ottawa people heading to Three Rivers. Another visitor was an adventurer who made a canoe journey to the island in 1665.

History

Archaeologists found old fishing camps on Mackinac Island and nearby areas. Items like fishhooks and pottery show that Native Americans lived there at least 700 years before Europeans arrived, around the year 900 AD. The Anishinaabe people, who lived there early on, considered the island sacred. They believed it was the home of Gitche Manitou, or the "Great Spirit." According to stories, the island was created by the Great Hare, Michabou, after a great flood. Tribes gathered on the island to honor Gitche Manitou, and it became a place where tribal leaders were buried.

The first European to see Mackinac Island was Jean Nicolet, a French-Canadian explorer, in 1634. In 1670, a Jesuit priest named Claude Dablon started a mission for Native Americans on the island and stayed through the winter. Later, Jacques Marquette took over the mission but moved it to St. Ignace in 1671. The mission helped make the Straits of Mackinac an important place for French fur trading. After the French and Indian War, the British controlled the area. In 1780, Major Patrick Sinclair chose the island’s bluffs for Fort Mackinac.

The Jesuit Relations, a record from 1671, describe Mackinac Island in detail. The text shows how important the area was for trade and travel. The name "Michilimackinac" was used for the whole region, including the post at St. Ignace and the fort near the Straits of Mackinac.

Although the British built Fort Mackinac to protect their settlement, it was never attacked during the American Revolutionary War. The U.S. gained control of the area through the Treaty of Paris in 1783. However, Britain kept forces in the Great Lakes until the Jay Treaty in 1794, which gave the U.S. control over the Northwest Territory.

During the War of 1812, the British captured Fort Mackinac in a surprise attack. They built Fort George nearby to protect their victory. In 1814, the British and Americans fought again on the island, and the Americans failed to retake it. The U.S. government’s fur trade station at Mackinac was then taken over by the British.

The Treaty of Ghent in 1815 returned the island and nearby land to the U.S. The U.S. retook Fort Mackinac and renamed Fort George as Fort Holmes after Major Andrew Holmes, who was killed in the battle. The U.S. government controlled the fort until 1895. It helped defend the Union during the Civil War and held prisoners from the Confederate States.

After the War of 1812, John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company operated from Mackinac Island for 30 years. By the mid-1800s, fishing became the main industry on the island. In the 1880s, as sport fishing grew, hotels and restaurants opened to serve tourists arriving by train or boat.

Between 1795 and 1815, Métis people—mixed-race communities—built settlements and trading posts in parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. By 1829, the Métis were a major part of the economy in Wisconsin and northern Michigan. Many Métis families lived in areas like Mackinac Island and Green Bay. Unlike in Canada, where the Métis formed political groups, they did not organize in the U.S. The Village of Mackinac was officially created in 1847.

After the Civil War, Mackinac Island became a popular tourist spot. In 1875, the federal government made Mackinac National Park, the second U.S. national park, thanks to Senator Thomas W. Ferry, who was born on the island. To welcome more visitors, hotels like the Grand Hotel were built, and souvenir shops opened. Wealthy people also built summer homes on the island’s bluffs.

In 1895, the U.S. government gave all federal land on Mackinac Island to Michigan, making it the state’s first park. The Mackinac Island State Park Commission was created to manage the area and protect its Victorian-style buildings.

Cars were not allowed on the island in the late 1800s because they scared horses used for carriages. This rule still applies today, except for emergency vehicles, city services, and snowmobiles in winter. In 2019, controversy arose when Vice President Mike Pence was allowed to bring a motorcade to the island.

Demographics

According to the 2020 United States census, the island has a population of 583 people who live there all year. The population increases a lot during the summer because of tourists and seasonal workers. Hotels, restaurants, bars, and retail shops hire hundreds of seasonal workers to manage the many thousands of visitors who come to the island between May 1 and October 31.

Geography

Mackinac Island is located in Lake Huron at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of the state. The island has a circumference of about 8 miles (13 km) and covers a total area of 3.8 square miles (9.8 km²). The highest point on the island is historic Fort Holmes, which was originally called Fort George by the British before 1815. This location is 320 feet (98 m) above the lake and 890 feet (271 m) above sea level.

Mackinac Island was formed when glaciers from the last ice age began to melt around 13,000 BC. The rock layers beneath the island are much older, dating back to the Late Silurian and Early Devonian periods, about 400 to 420 million years ago. Rock salt deposits underground dissolved, causing the limestone layers above them to collapse. These broken but now solidified rocks are known as the Mackinac Breccia. As the glaciers melted, they created the Great Lakes. The water from the lakes eroded the limestone bedrock, forming the island’s steep cliffs and rock formations. Scientists have identified at least three past lake levels, two of which were higher than today’s shoreline. These include the Algonquin-level lakeshores from about 13,000 years ago and the Nipissing-level shorelines formed 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. Between these two high-water periods, the Straits of Mackinac became a narrow gorge, and water flowed over Mackinac Falls, located just east of the island near Arch Rock, into Lake Huron.

As the Great Lakes reached their current levels, Mackinac Falls disappeared, and the island took its present shape. The steep cliffs were a key reason the British army chose the island for a fort. This decision contrasted with the French army, which built Fort Michilimackinac near present-day Mackinaw City around 1715. The limestone formations remain a major attraction. Popular features include Arch Rock, a natural limestone arch 146 feet (45 m) above the ground, as well as Devil’s Kitchen, Skull Cave, and Sugar Loaf.

Mackinac Island has a variety of landscapes, including fields, marshes, bogs, coastline, boreal forests, and limestone formations. The island is legally protected as a State Historic Park. About half of the shoreline and nearby waters, including Haldimand Bay and parts of the southern and western shores, are preserved as part of the Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve, a state marine park. The island is separated from the mainland by 3 miles (4.8 km) of water, so few large mammals live there except those that travel on ice during winter. Common animals include rabbits, foxes, raccoons, otters, mink, gray and red squirrels, chipmunks, and occasionally beavers and coyotes. Bats are also common due to the island’s many caves and abundant insects.

Mackinac Island is a key stop for migratory birds traveling between summer and winter homes. Eagles and hawks are often seen in April and May, while yellow warblers, American redstarts, and indigo buntings are common in early summer. Near the shoreline, gulls, herons, geese, and loons are frequently spotted. Owls, such as snowy owls and great grey owls, travel from the Arctic to hunt on the island. Chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, and woodpeckers live there year-round. Toads have also been found on the island.

Mackinac Island is home to over 600 species of vascular plants. Flowering plants and wildflowers are widespread, including trillium, lady slippers, forget-me-nots, violets, trout lily, spring beauty, hepatica, buttercups, and hawkweeds in the forests. Along the shoreline, orchids, fringed gentian, butter-and-eggs, and jack-in-the-pulpit grow. The island’s forests include many types of trees, such as maple, birch, elm, cedar, pine, and spruce.

Media

The island's newspaper is called the Mackinac Island Town Crier. Since 1957, it has been run by Wesley H. Maurer Sr. and his family as a way to learn about journalism. The newspaper is published once a week from May to September and once a month for the rest of the year.

Transportation

The island can be reached by private boat, ferry, small aircraft, or, during winter, by snowmobile across an ice bridge. The airport has a 3,500-foot (1,070 m) paved runway, and daily flights from the mainland are available. During the summer tourist season, ferry service is provided by Shepler's Ferry and Mackinac Island Ferry Company (formerly Star Line) to transport visitors from St. Ignace and Mackinaw City to the island.

Motorized vehicles have not been allowed on the island since 1898, except for city emergency vehicles (ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks), city service vehicles, and snowmobiles in winter. Travel on the island is by foot, bicycle, horse, or horse-drawn carriage. Roller skates and roller blades are also permitted, except in the downtown area. Bicycles, roller skates, roller blades, carriages, and saddle horses can be rented.

An 8-mile (13 km) road runs along the island's perimeter, and many roads, trails, and paths cover the interior. M-185, the only U.S. state highway without motorized vehicles, forms a circular loop around the island, following the shoreline closely.

Mackinac Island State Park covers about 80% of the island’s area. It includes Fort Mackinac, parts of the historic downtown, and the harbor. Camping is not allowed on the island, but many hotels and bed and breakfasts are available.

Downtown streets are lined with many retail stores and restaurants.

Architecture

Most buildings on Mackinac Island are made of wood, some are made of stone, and many have clapboard siding. The building styles on the island cover 300 years, from the earliest structures built by Native American groups to the European-American styles of the 1800s.

The first buildings were created by the Anishinaabe and Ojibwe (also known as Chippewa in the United States) before Europeans arrived. At least two buildings from the original French settlement in the late 1700s still remain. Mackinac Island is the only place in the United States with an example of northern French rustic architecture, and one of the few places in North America where this style still exists.

The island also has buildings in the Federalist, Colonial, and Greek Revival styles. Because Mackinac Island became a popular tourist destination in the late 1800s, many buildings were constructed in the Victorian era style. This includes Gothic Revival, Stick style, Italianate, Second Empire, Richardson Romanesque, and Queen Anne styles. The most recent building styles on the island date from the late 1800s to the 1930s and include Colonial and Tudor Revival styles.

Points of interest

All of Mackinac Island was designated a National Historic Landmark in October 1960. Because of the island’s long history and preservation efforts that began in the 1890s, eight locations on the island and a ninth site on nearby Round Island are listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places. In 2022, Travel + Leisure named Mackinac Island the best island in the continental United States to visit.

• The entire island, Haldimand Bay, and a small shipwreck form a historic district.
• Fort Mackinac was built by the British in 1780. The United States closed it as a fort in 1895 because it no longer had any military importance. It was restored to look like it did in the late 1800s, starting in the 1930s.
• The Biddle House, one of the oldest buildings on Mackinac Island, was built about 1780. It shows what the home was like when the Métis Biddle family lived there during the busy fur trade years of the 1820s.
• The McGulpin House, a home for working people that may have been built before 1780, shows what a frontier working-class home was like.
• The Agency House of the American Fur Company was built in 1820 as the home for the company’s Mackinac Island agent, Robert Stuart. It is now a museum about the fur trade and is open to the public.
• The Mission House was built in 1825 on Mission Point by Presbyterian missionary William Montague Ferry as a school for Native American and Métis children. It became a hotel in 1849 and a rooming house in 1939. It was restored and now houses State Park employees.
• A 108-foot-tall museum with glass walls at Mission Point has five floors of exhibits about the history of Mackinac Island, Great Lakes lighthouses, shipping, shipwrecks, the Mackinac Bridge, and the film Somewhere in Time, which was mainly filmed on Mission Point property.
• The Mission Church was built in 1829 and is the oldest church still standing in Michigan. It was restored to look like it did in the 1830s.
• The Indian Dormitory was built in 1836 under the direction of U.S. Indian agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft after the 1836 Treaty of Washington was signed. It was used as a school and a place for Native Americans to stay while visiting the island for yearly payments. The building was restored in 1966 and turned into a museum, but it closed in 2003. It reopened in 2010 as The Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum, which displays art from Mackinac’s past to the present, including a children’s art studio.
• The Matthew Geary House, built in 1846 as a private home, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. It is privately owned and available for vacation rentals.
• The current Catholic Sainte Anne Church was built from 1874. It replaced earlier churches on Mackinac Island and the mainland. The church’s records show people who participated in religious events like baptisms, marriages, and funerals as early as 1695.
• The Grand Hotel is a Victorian-style building that opened in 1887. The 1980 film Somewhere in Time was filmed there.
• The Round Island Lighthouse is located on the small, uninhabited Round Island, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The lighthouse was built in 1894 and automated in 1924. Major repairs began in the 1970s, and the building has since been restored.
• Wawashkamo Golf Club was created in 1898 as a Scottish-style golf course. It is the oldest continuously played golf course in Michigan.
• The Michigan Governor’s Summer Residence was built in 1902 overlooking the harbor. The state bought it in 1943 for use as a seasonal home for the governor.
• Anne’s Tablet is an Art Nouveau sculpture added to a hilltop overlook in 1916.
• Several children’s parks have been built on the island. Popular ones include the playground on the schoolyard, Marquette Park, and Great Turtle Park, which has a baseball field, skate park, barbecue area, and a play set.

Culture

Mackinac Island has many cultural events. One event is an annual display of American art from the Masco collection of 19th-century works at the Grand Hotel. Five art galleries operate on the island.

Since 1949, the island’s residents have celebrated the island’s native lilacs with an annual spring 10-day festival. The festival ends with a parade of horse-drawn vehicles. This parade has been recognized as a local legacy event by the Library of Congress.

The July 20, 2019, Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race was the 95th such annual event. It included 202 sailboats in a 204-nautical-mile race from Port Huron to the island. The race has continued over the years despite wars and economic depressions. A similar sailboat race from Chicago to the island, most recently held on July 22 to 25, 2023, was the 114th event in the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac. It included 266 sailboats competing.

Mackinac Island is a destination for many regionally and nationally proclaimed conferences, including the Mackinac Policy Conference.

Another special event on Mackinac Island is the Mackinac Island Fudge Festival, which takes place in August. Phil Porter wrote a book called "Fudge: Mackinac's Sweet Souvenir," which explains how fudge became a popular treat on the island. After the fur trade, the island became a summer vacation spot. Visitors began to associate sweets with the island. This started when Native Americans collected maple sugar, but in the 1800s, the Murdick family created the first real candy store. During the first half of the 20th century, sugar was limited due to the Great Depression and wars. Fudge shops on the island had little business, but the Murdick family used fans to spread the scent of their fudge to attract customers. Later, major interstates made Mackinac Island well known. Visitors became known as "fudgies" because they traveled to the island for its famous fudge. Although fudge was not invented on the island, it is a popular treat that people travel from all over to enjoy.

Epona, the Gallo-Roman Horse Goddess, is celebrated each June on Mackinac Island with stable tours, a blessing of the animals, and the Epona and Barkus Parade. Mackinac Island does not allow personal automobiles. Horses are the main way to travel, so celebrating Epona has special meaning on the island. The "Feast of Epona" includes a local churchman blessing horses and other animals.

Every summer, Mackinac Island hosts several Michigan Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and their leaders over alternate weeks. These scouts serve the state park as the Mackinac Island Governor’s Honor Guard. The program began in 1929 when the State Park Commission invited eight Eagle Scouts, including Gerald Ford, who later became President of the United States, to the island. In 1974, the program was expanded by Governor William Milliken to include Girl Scouts. The program is popular, selective, and a long-standing tradition. Scouts raise and lower twenty-seven flags on the island, serve as guides, and complete volunteer service projects during their stay. These scouts live in the Scout Barracks behind Fort Mackinac.

Mackinac Island is the destination for two sailing races. The island has a sailing club, the Mackinac Island Yacht Club. It serves as the finish line for both the Port Huron to Mackinac Race and the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac. The races are held a week apart in July. They are among the longest freshwater sailing races in the world and attract over 500 boats and 3,500 sailors combined. Both races have been held every year since the 1920s.

The swimming pool at the Grand Hotel is named for Esther Williams, who starred in the 1947 film This Time for Keeps. The film included many scenes filmed on Mackinac Island.

Most of the 1980 film Somewhere in Time was filmed at Mission Point on Mackinac Island. Several landmarks appear in the film, including the Grand Hotel and the lighthouse on nearby Round Island. The film’s director said he needed to "find a place that looked like it hadn’t changed in eighty years."

Mackinac Island appeared in two episodes of the mid-2000s TV series Dirty Jobs. Host Mike Rowe interviewed a Mackinac Bridge maintenance worker and a horse manure and garbage removal/composting collector.

In the Netflix show Emily in Paris season 2, episode 6, Emily says she went on a Vespa fudge tour with her mom around Mackinac Island when she was younger. However, in real life, Vespas are not allowed on Mackinac Island.