An American Island stuck in the past? Or a relaxing getaway?

For our first listener requested episode we head on over to America. Mackinac Island is somewhat stuck in the Victorian times yet manages a good number of tourists every year. Want to know how you manage to live in the 21st century and the Victorian Era at the same time?

The origins

So our first destination in the United States is also our first listener request. An episode on Mackinac Island was requested quite a while ago now, but better late than never as they always say.

If we wander all the way back to possibly around 13 000 BC we would be seeing a glacier melting at the end of the latest Ice Age and two massive lakes forming around our little island. Lake Michigan on one side and Lake Huron on the other. Although surprisingly, the island had some pretty high bluffs.

The local indigenous population thought the island looked a little like a turtle, and so referred to the island as Michilimackinac, which meant ‘The Place of the Great Turtle’. While the island, with its unique limestone bluffs does look a little like a turtle, the Native Americans of the area believe that the island is home to a Great Spirit, of which the turtle is a sacred figure within their culture, representing Mother Earth and signifying a long life and good health.

These native Americans were the first summer tourists to the island, taking time to fish for trout, herring and whitefish among other species local to the area. And this population of the area has been confirmed through archaeological evidence of fishing camps, in the form of fishhooks and pottery, dating to about 900 AD.

The island is considered a sacred place to the Ojibwe people of the Anishinaabek Nation. And together along with the Odawa and Potawatomi, made up the Confederacy of the Three Fires. This trio had a number of meeting places, with Michilimackinac listed as their most used. They also buried their tribal chiefs on the island in the ominously named Skull Cave.

While the island had been known to the native peoples of the area for hundreds of years. The first European believed to have been to the island was the French Canadian that went by Jean Nicolet, who, in 1634, was wandering around the area exploring at the direction of the Governor of Canada at the time, Samuel de Champlain.

The early days

As 1671 rolled around, Jacques Marquette was around preaching to the Indians in the area of the Straits of Mackinac, and not long after the fur trade started to move into the area and didn’t do too badly, but we’ll get more into that a bit later on.

The first European settlement, was when Jacques Marquette founded a mission on the island. But things clearly didn’t go in the direction he was hoping, because a year later he moved the mission off the island and eventually, in 1708, ended up near to where you’ll find Mackinaw City today.

It wasn’t too long after that, in 1780, that the British came on down declaring this, that and every bit of land for themselves. But the indigenous people living there obviously weren’t too pleased (who would be) because this movement resulted in the French and Indian War. With the war ending with Patrick Sinclair, an English Major, claiming the bluffs of Mackinac Island for his fort. Aptly named Fort Mackinac.

While largely left alone throughout the American Revolution, after the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the United States emerged as the holders of the island and fort. But the Poms being Poms were reluctant to give up their bit of land, which they somehow managed to hold on to until the mid-1790s.

Even though the area was known for its profitable fur trading as early as the 1600s. It didn’t really properly take off in an organised manner until 1809, when John Jacob Astor monopolised the fur trade market with his American Fur Company, which at its height was trading enough furs to make $3 million each year.

As we move into 1812, we start to get into some issues. In July, the Brits sneaked up on the island, startling the Americans into surrendering Fort Mackinac. But as the War of 1812 really started to take off, the British stood their ground by building a second fort that they called Fort George.

In 1814, the Americans quite unsuccessfully attempted to take back the island, but ultimately failed, losing one of their own in the process, Andrew Hunter Holmes.

But when the Treaty of Ghent was signed in 1815, it named Mackinac Island and its forts as under American control once again and they lost no time at all in renaming Fort George after Holmes, resulting in Fort Holmes.

With the War of 1812 officially over, Astor’s American Fur Company really started to take off. And for the next thirty years, Astor, who was a German immigrant, really showed that hard work can result in real success.

As we fast forward a little , past the end of the Civil War, we start to see railroads snake their way across the continent, giving rise to tourism and encouraging it to grow exponentially. And Mackinac Island was one such place blessed with tourism dollars. So much so that as we enter the 1890s, we see wealthy industrialists, sick of paying for their stay on the island, start to build their own summer cottages. Which just goes to show how much of a summer destination Mackinac Island was way back in the 1800s.

Mackinac quirks

Mackinac Island is unique in several instances. And while we’re about to touch on some very shortly, there are several things to do and places to see that just wouldn’t have been able to fit in this little episode. So be sure to check out the Mackinac Island website if you’re interested in a proper look at all their tourist attractions.

So one of the most interesting things to have happened on the Island is a medical discovery giving one bloke the title of ‘Father of American Physiology’.

Our story begins in June of 1822, when a poor fellow by the name of Alexis St. Martin was shot in the stomach. Supposedly this was just an accident by a friend, but it was from 3 feet away and literally almost killed him. Even back then maybe they should have been considering some kind of strict gun reform. But moving right along.

So William Beaumont, an Army surgeon stationed at our favourite Fort, rushed over to help the poor lad, as it turned out his wound was literally the size of a hand. Right through the stomach. A hand-sized wound. Seriously. Get rid of the guns.

It was all thanks to the good doctor that young St Martin remained alive. But oddly enough, the wound in his stomach never closed properly, meaning that you could see right into St Martin’s stomach. That is so gross. But like one of those gross things you just can’t look away from.

And Beaumont couldn’t look away either, because he spent the next several years conducting experiments, using St Martin’s stomach. By today’s standards, they would never have passed the ethics board, and back then were even considered just slightly controversial. For example, attaching a bit of meat to string and then dangling it in and out of St Martin’s stomach hole.

And yet, Beaumont published several articles on his findings into how the stomach digested food through the use of chemicals. The information he garnered from St Martin was truly ground-breaking, especially during a time when technology was poor and information not that readily available.

Moving onto something a whole lot less gross; In the early 1870s, Congress was worried about natural formations being lost due to the influx of tourism and wanted to preserve as much of Mackinac Island was they could.

In 1872, the government had designated their first national park in the form of Yellowstone. Very impressive. And the second ever national park? Well that was designated in 1875, and would include portions of land that can be found on Mackinac Island. Meaning that the Island is the nation’s second ever national park.

This pretty much accounts for why most of the island is just trees, as apart from a couple of sites set aside for cottages all other development was stopped.

And finally when, after twenty years, the US army officially left Fort Mackinac empty, all federal land on the island, including the Fort, was renamed as the first state park for the state of Michigan.

With over 82% of the island declared as state park, there are some truly amazing trails and geological formations to feast your feet and eyes upon. The island is about 2400 acres, and it pretty much looks as it did in 1895. 

So much so that the state highway that runs around the edge of the island, is the only highway in the country where motor vehicles are banned.

And now we get into what Mackinac Island is properly known for. The island has no cars. That’s right, no cars. The only way to get around the island, if you don’t want to walk it, is either by bicycle or the good old reliable horse-drawn carriage.

It was at the end of the 19th century, that the automobile industry started to pick up steam, and combustible engines were becoming all the rage. But horses had been managing the tours of the island pretty well for well over three decades, and because the sound of the motors was scaring the horses, a group of carriage owners lodged a petition to the local council calling for the

dangerous horseless carriages

to be banned. The powers that be agreed and so on the 6 July, 1898, the ban was put in place and is still in place to this very day. Seeing as it’s one of the very few places in the world that doesn’t have cars as the main form of transport in the 20th and 21st centuries, it has made the Island a real special escape from the modern world.

As it was for the Native Americans back in the day, the main way to reach the island is by boat. The Native Americans would have travelled by canoe, but today the modern visitor can take a pretty easy ferry from either Mackinaw City in the south, or St Ignace in the North.

When you’re actually on the island, you’ll probably see several Carriage Tour companies, the oldest on the island, and for that matter, in the world is the Mackinac Island Carriage Tours, which have been in operation for more than 150 years.

And while you can’t take your own car onto the island, you don’t need to worry about having to wait for a horse if it’s an emergency situation, because they have made an exception for emergency vehicles.

A fun fact to take away from this, is that the only auto accident to have happened on the island was in 2005 when a fire truck’s door clipped the door of an ambulance. Thank god the authorities were there.

And you don’t need to worry about needing a horse to get to the next hole when playing a round of golf, because golf carts have been allowed on the island. But sadly, delivery trucks are a big no-no, with deliveries being made the old fashioned way, with a horse-drawn wagon.

A sticking point with the Island is how to pronounce its name. The Native American’s knew the island as Michilimackinac, with the spelling coming about when the French translated the local Anishinaabek pronunciation into something that worked with their pheontic alphabet and probably their accent. This resulted in the silent ‘c’ that is pronounced as ‘aw’ instead of a hard ‘k’.

The Island’s name was shortened from Michilimackinac to just straight Mackinac in the 10th century.

And it wasn’t until 1857, when a Mr Edgar Conkling founded Mackinaw City on the mainland, where he changed the spelling, replacing the silent ‘c’ with an actual ‘a’ ‘w’.

But despite its spelling, both the city and island are both pronounced with the ‘aw’.

If you get the chance to wander around the Island you’ll see some pretty cool natural formations.

Skull Cave, that we’ve already mentioned, is much like its name, a cave filled with skulls. And a burial place for the Native tribes that lived in the area, specifically for tribal chiefs.

Arch Rock is pretty cool, it rises out of the water to reach 44 metres. And at its widest point reaches 15 metres across. Geologists tell us that the formation of the arch would have taken thousands of years of wind and water running through the arch, eroding anything that’s soft enough to give way, with just the hard breccia rock left behind giving us the arch that we see today.

Another interesting rock formation is the mass of rock that’s known as Sugar Loaf. While it’s not actually made of actually sugar, the rock, also breccia, stands tall at 22 metres and is lucky enough to hold the title of Mackinac’s tallest limestone stack.

The Island today

If this short episode hasn’t been enough for you, then I strongly suggest that you check out another podcast, one that goes by the name of Voices of Mackinac Island. They cover all interesting aspects about the island, so make sure to check them out. I’ll put a link to where you can find their episodes in the show notes.

With 80% of the Island being a part of a State Park, 1960 saw the whole island listed as a National Historic Landmark. And the Island is even listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places. Not too shabby.

With the Island looking pretty much Victorian picture perfect, the permanent population has been estimated at 500 residents. And the 2000 census confirmed that year-round at least 523 people can be found to be living on the island.

But throughout the summer months, so pretty much May through to October, it becomes a pretty major tourist destination, with its population growing by sometimes up to as many as 15 000 a day. Included in this number are of course the short-term employees that come to help out throughout the summer rush.

While in winter things tend to die down a little bit, it can get pretty cold with apparently plenty of snow and ice, because the locals tend to replace their bicycles for snowmobiles. Which I think it’s safe to say is much more fun than a horse-drawn carriage.

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