Mackinac Island

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Mackinac Native name: Michilimackinac
Geography
Location	Lake Huron
Coordinates	45°51′40″N, 84°37′50″W
Total islands	Three
Major islands	Mackinac, Bois Blanc, Round
Area	9.779 km² (3.776 mi²)
Highest point	Fort Holmes (270 m (890 ft))
Administration
Michigan
County	Mackinac County
Largest city	Mackinac Island (523)
Demographics
Population	523 residents with an average 15,000 tourists per day during peak season (as of 2000)

Mackinac Island (pronounced [ˈmækɪˌnɔː], like MACK-in-aw, note the silent "c") is a small island, 9.779 km² (3.776 mi²) in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.^[1] The island was a Native American settlement before European exploration began in the 17th century. It served a strategic position amidst the commerce of the Great Lakes fur trade. This led to the establishment of Fort Mackinac on the island by the British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the scene of two strategic battles during the War of 1812.^[2]

In the late 19th century, the island became a popular tourist attraction and summer colony. Much of Mackinac Island has undergone extensive historical preservation and restoration; as a result, the island is home to numerous nationally recognized historic places. It is well known for its ban on automobiles, numerous cultural events, and its wide variety of architectural styles, including the famous Victorian Grand Hotel. More than 80% of the island is preserved as Mackinac Island State Park.^[3]

Contents 1 Description 2 History 3 Geology 4 Etymology of "Mackinac" 5 Historic places 6 Culture 6.1 Mackinac Island Honor Scouts 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Description

The island is approximately 13 kilometers (8 mi) in circumference and about 9 square kilometers (3.5 mi²) in total area.^[1] It is accessible by private boats, by ferry, and by small aircraft. The airport has a 1,070 meter (3,500 ft) paved runway, and charter air service from the mainland is available.^[4] In the summer tourist season, three separate ferry services shuttle visitors to the island from St. Ignace and Mackinaw City.^[5]

According to the 2000 census, the island has a year-round population of 523.^[6] The population grows considerably in the summer, accommodating an average of 15,000 visitors per day.^[7] The highest point of the island is the historic Fort George (officially called Fort Holmes since 1815), which is 97 meters (320 ft) above the lake level and about 270 meters (890 ft) above sea level.^[8][9]

Motorized vehicles are prohibited on the island, with the exception of emergency vehicles, service vehicles, and snowmobiles during the winter. Travel on the island is by foot, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage. Bicycles, carriages, and saddle horses are available for rent. A 13 kilometer (8 mi) road follows the island's perimeter, and numerous roads, trails and paths cover the interior.^[10] The road encircling the island and closely hugging the shoreline is M-185, one of the few highways in the United States without motorized vehicles.^[11] The island has numerous candy shops that line the streets of the village. The most popular item at these stores is the locally-produced "Mackinac Island fudge"; a popular nickname for visiting shoppers is "fudgies". Many shops sell a variety of fudge, and some of the confectioners have been operating for more than a century.^[12]

The island is the location of three Michigan state parks: Fort Mackinac, the historic downtown, and Mackinac Island State Park, which covers about 80% of the island. No camping is allowed on the island, but numerous hotels and bed and breakfasts are available.^[5][13]

[edit] History

Mackinac Island is a sacred place in the tradition of some of its earliest known inhabitants, the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe tribes, as it is home to the spirit Gitche Manitou. The island was a gathering place for local tribes where offerings were made to Gitche Manitou and was where tribal chiefs were buried. The first European who is likely to have seen Mackinac Island is Jean Nicolet, a French-Canadian coureur de bois (unlicensed fur trader), during his 1634 explorations. The Jesuit priest Claude Dablon founded a mission post to the Native Americans on Mackinac Island in 1670, and overwintered here in 1670-71. Dablon's fall 1671 successor, the missionary and explorer Jacques Marquette, moved the mission to St. Ignace soon after his arrival.^[14][15] With the mission as a focus the Straits of Mackinac quickly became an important French fur trading location. The British took control of the Straits of Mackinac after the French and Indian War, and Major Patrick Sinclair chose the bluffs of the island for Fort Mackinac in 1780.^[2][16]

Although the British built Fort Mackinac to protect their settlement from attack by Americans and native tribes, the fort was never attacked during the American Revolutionary War and the entire Straits area was officially acquired by the U.S. through the Treaty of Paris in 1783. However, much of the British forces did not leave the Great Lakes area until after Jay's Treaty established U.S. sovereignty over the entire Northwest Territory in 1794.^[17] During the War of 1812, the British captured the fort in the first battle of the conflict because the Americans had not yet heard that war had been declared. The victorious British attempted to protect their prize by building Fort George on the high ground behind Fort Mackinac. In 1814, the Americans and British fought a second battle on the north side of the island. The American second-in-command, Major Andrew Hunter Holmes was killed, and the Americans failed to recapture the island.

Despite this military outcome, the Treaty of Ghent forced the British to return the island and surrounding mainland to the U.S. in 1815. The U.S. reoccupied Fort Mackinac, and renamed Fort George Fort Holmes, after Major Holmes.^[2][9] Fort Mackinac remained under the control of the United States government until 1895 and provided volunteers to defend the Union during the American Civil War. The fort even served as a prison for three Confederate sympathizers.^[16]

John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company was centered on Mackinac Island after the War of 1812 and exported beaver pelts for the next thirty years. By the middle of the 19th century, commercial fishing, specifically for whitefish and lake trout, began to replace the fur trade as the island's primary industry. As sport fishing became more popular in the 1880s, small hotels and restaurants began to be built to accommodate the growing numbers of tourists coming by train from Detroit.^[2]

Much of the federal land on Mackinac Island was designated as Mackinac National Park in 1875, just three years after Yellowstone was designated as the first national park. When the federal government left the island in 1895, all of the federal land, including Fort Mackinac, was given to the state of Michigan and became Michigan's first state park. Following the Civil War, the island became a popular tourist destination for residents of cities on the Great Lakes. To accommodate the influx of tourists, the boat and railroad companies built hotels, including the Grand Hotel. Souvenir shops began to spring up as a way for island residents to profit from the tourists. Many wealthy industrialists built summer cottages along the island's bluffs for extended stays. The state park commission appointed to oversee the island has limited private development in the park and requires leaseholders to maintain the island's distinctive Victorian architecture.^[3][18]

Motor vehicles were restricted at the end of the 19th century because of concerns for the health and safety of the island's residents and horses after local carriage drivers complained that automobiles startled their horses. This ban continues to the present with exceptions only for emergency and construction vehicles.^[19][16]

[edit] Geology

Mackinac Island was formed as the glaciers of the last ice age began to melt around 13000 BCE. The melting glaciers formed the Great Lakes, and the receding lakewaters eroded the limestone bedrock, forming the island's steep cliffs and rock formations. As the glaciers completely melted and the lakes receded to near their present levels, Mackinac Island grew to its current size.^[1] The steep cliffs were one of the primary reasons for the British army's choice of the island for a fortification; their decision differed from that of the French army, which had built Fort Michilimackinac about 1715 near present-day Mackinaw City. The limestone formations are still part of the island's appeal. However, tourists are attacted by the natural beauty rather than the strategic value. One of the most popular geologic formations is Arch Rock, a natural limestone arch, nearly 45 meters (150 ft) above the ground.^[2][20] Other popular geologic formations include Sugar Loaf and Skull Cave.^[3]

[edit] Etymology of "Mackinac"

Like many historic places in the Great Lakes region, Mackinac Island's name is rooted in Native American languages. Native Americans in the Straits of Mackinac region likened the shape of the island to that of a turtle. Therefore, they named it "Mitchimakinak" meaning "big turtle" in the Algonquin family of languages, which is spoken throughout what is now the northern United States and Canada, and includes Menominee and Anishinaabe.^[21] The French used a version of the original pronunciation: Michilimackinac. However, the English simplified it to the present name: "Mackinac."^[22][23]

[edit] Historic places

Because of the island's long history and preservation efforts dating to the 1890s, there are many places on the island recognized by the United States National Register of Historic Places. The places, along with their historic periods of significance according to the register are:^[16]

• Fort Mackinac — 1750–1799, 1800–1824
• Matthew Geary House — 1825–1849
• Grand Hotel — 1875–1899, 1900–1924, 1925–1949
• Indian Dormitory — 1825–1849
• Mission Church — 1825–1849
• Mission House — 1825–1849
• Round Island Lighthouse — 1875–1899
• The Agency House of the American Fur Company — 1800–1824
• Michigan Governor's Summer Residence — 1900–1924, 1925–1949

The entire island, Haldimand Bay, and a small shipwreck form a historic district.^[24][1]

[edit] Culture

Mackinac Island is home to many cultural events, including an annual show of American art from the Masco collection of 19th century works at the Grand Hotel. There are also at least five art galleries on the island.^[25] Mackinac Island has been the setting of two feature films: This Time for Keeps in 1946 and Somewhere in Time, filmed at the Grand Hotel in 1979.^[26] In addition, Mackinac Island has been written about and visited by many influential writers including Alexis De Tocqueville, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, Edward Everett Hale, Mark Twain, and Constance Fenimore Woolson.^[27] In addition, favorable growing conditions have allowed lilacs to thrive on the island. Since 1949, the island's residents have been celebrating the lilacs with an annual 10 day festival, culminating in a horse-drawn parade that has been recognized as a local legacy event by the Library of Congress.^[28]

Most of the buildings on Mackinac Island are built from wood, though a few are made of stone, and most have clapboard siding.^[1] The architectural styles on the island span 300 years of habitation, from the earliest Native American structures to the styles of the 19th century. The earliest structures were built by the Anishnaabe, Ojibwe, and Chippewa tribes before European exploration. At least two buildings still exist from the original French settlement in the late 18th century, making Mackinac Island the only example of northern French rustic architecture in the United States, and one of a few survivors in North America. Fort Mackinac, with its whitewashed stone walls instead of the more traditional wood, is a European adaptation of Islamic military architecture. Mackinac Island also contains examples of Federalist, Colonial, and Greek revival styles. Much of the island however, is built in the style of the Victorian era which includes Gothic Revival, Stick style, Italianate, Second Empire, Richardson Romanesque and Queen Anne styles. The most recent styles used on the island date from the late 1800s to the 1930s and include the Colonial revival and Tudor revival styles.^[29]

[edit] Mackinac Island Honor Scouts

Every summer, a minimum of 50 Michigan Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts at any one time, live and work on the island in alternating weeks. The program began in 1929 when the state park commission invited eight Eagle Scouts, including young Gerald Ford, to serve as honor guards for the Michigan governor. In 1974, the program was expanded to include Girl Scouts. The program is popular, and only the most well-motivated scouts are accepted into the program. Scouts perform such duties as raising and lowering all of the flags in the city and in Fort Mackinac. They also serve as guides, answering questions and checking tickets at historic locations around the island and they must complete a service project during their stay. Scouts must march when in groups and practice proper stances when at guide posts, this includes the use of "parade rest" while on duty. In addition, full dress uniform is required when scouts are on duty or walking in public, a much higher standard than is typically enforced for a troop's normal use. During each troop's week on the island, they stay in the Scout Barracks, located north of Fort Mackinac.^[30][31][32]

[edit] See also

• Mackinac Island Town Crier - The island's newspaper
• Mackinac Bridge - A long suspension bridge in the Straits of Mackinac, near Mackinac Island

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mackinac Island Dog & Pony Club Website
• M-185 Route Listing at Michigan Highways
• Michigan History, Arts, and libraries - Mackinac Island

	U.S. National Register of Historic Places - (List of entries)
	National Park Service . National Historic Landmarks . National Battlefields . National Historic Sites . National Historic Parks . National Memorials . National Monuments