Mackinac Island...a blast from the past

We spent a day on Mackinac Island, this is an Island located in Lake Huron and the only way to reach the Island is by ferry, so we boarded one and off we went. Mackinac Island is about eight miles in circumference and has only 500 permanent residents, but in the summer months the population can swell to over 1500...lots of people! 

Like many historic places in the Great Lakes region, Mackinac Island's name came from the  Native American word "Mitchimakinak" or "Big Turtle" because the Native American Indians thought that the Island was in the shape of a turtle. The French changed it to Michilimackinac, but then the British shortened it to its present name..Mackinac.

The most common form of travel on the Island is horse and buggy, or you can go by foot, by bicycle or by horseback because there is a local ordinance that does not allow the use of any motorized vehicle on the Island, with the exception of a firetruck and an ambulance, so we rented a horse and buggy to go see the Island! First stop was the Grand Hotel, now that Hotel has quite a story....the Grand Hotel opened on July 10, 1887 and it took only three months to complete because the supervisors were going to receive a big bonus if it was completed in 90 days, now the men worked round the clock, in 12 hour shifts and in all kinds of weather to make sure it was done and it was, but then the workers found out that the supervisors had no plans on sharing the bonus, so they tore out a whole wall and it took three days to rebuild it, in total...it took 93 days to build...three days over the limit for the bonus, so no one received a bonus! 

        The Grand Hotel's front porch is the longest in the world at some 660 feet in length, overlooking a vast Tea Garden, Lake Huron and a resort size swimming pool. Seven First Lady have spent time at the Grand, so there are seven suites that are named for and designed by each and every one of them, done up in their favorite style and colors. The Grand Hotel served as a backdrop and the settings for the 1980 film Somewhere in Time, a film starred Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour.

Next stop was the magnificent stables, durning the summer months there can be up to 500 horses on the Island.. Now there is only one doctor on the Island, but there are 3 veterinarians to watch over the horses! 

Horses first arrived on Mackinac island when they were used to haul Fort Mackinac from the mainland, across the ice, over to the island in the in the 1700’s. From the 1870’s to 1880’s horses were in high demand and they stayed on the island year-round, unlike today where the horses are ferried off the Island after the season and taken to special stables in the Upper and Lower Peninsula of Michigan for the winter. Also at the stables there is a museum that houses all the different types of buggies that were used on the Island over the years! 

We clipped and clopped are way thru the Mackinac National Park, now this park is special because it was established in 1875, making it the second National Park established in the United States after Yellowstone (1872) and it was the very first State Park in Michigan. The parks forest contains cedar, spruce, balsam fir, paper birch, sugar maple, beech, red oak, hemlock and white pine. Also the second largest woodpecker in the US inhabitant this park, the pileated woodpecker, with its large size, flaming red crest, swooping flight, and maniacal call (think Woody Woodpecker), these birds are hard to miss or misidentify. The super large rectangular holes, which they chisel out of trees can be seen throughout the forest and their loud, resonant drumming can be heard for long distances.

Within the park there many limestone formations, these magnificent arches, stacks and sea caves are composed of limestone from millions of years ago. Wave action of the Great Lakes has washed away the surrounding softer rock exposing these picturesque formations. 

Sugar Loaf is a dramatic breccia mass rising 75 feet above the ground and is the largest of Mackinac Island’s many limestone stacks.

Arch Rock is the island’s most famous geological formation. The arch towers 146 feet above the water and spans fifty feet at its widest point. It is one of the natural wonders of the Midwest. But alas, the Arches days are number, the park services thinks it only has about 30 or 40 years left before it falls into the Lake! 

We got off the buggy at Fort Mackinac, this fort was built by the British army during the Revolutionary War. The British later relinquished the fort to the Americans in 1796, but then they built and maintained a similar fort on nearby St Joesph Island. These two nations used their island forts in a struggle to maintain supremacy over the waters of northern Lake Huron. One of the opening actions of the War of 1812, the British captured Fort Mackinac and maintained it as a British stronghold until the end of the war. An American attempt to recapture the fort in 1814 failed in the Battle of Mackinac Island. When the war ended the island was returned to American control. It is a neat fort, but if you've seen one fort...you have seen them all! We had lunch in the Tea Garden in the fort. 
We decided to walk back to the water front because I wanted to go to the Butterfly House!  Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. 

Wings of Mackinac has made this butterfly house a tropical environment that is both friendly to the butterflies and an enjoyable experience. There are hundreds of tropical and native butterflies flying among the lush plants and around the water fall, you can sit and and take in the gorgeous scenery around you and witnessing the unbelievable display of butterflies flying all around you and some of them landed on me and Pierre!

After such a fun and unbelievable magical day we boarded another ferry and headed for home...