George: Time to drive north to the index finger of the mitten shaped state and one of its most celebrated spots, Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island. They are spelled differently but pronounced the same way. Mackinaw City is located at the very top of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula at the southern side of the Mackinaw Bridge. It connects the lower and upper peninsulas. The straits of Mackinaw separate Lake Michigan from Lake Huron. To get from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island, you need to take a boat or fly in. 95% of island visitors come by boat. Chris Shepler owns one of three ferry companies that transport visitors from the mainland to paradise.
Chris: We have about 800,000 people to visit Mackinac Island on a yearly basis and that happens between the first of May and the first of November.
George: The ride across lake Huron takes less than 20 minutes and it’s about as close to the upper peninsula as I’ll get on this journey. As the boat approaches the island, passengers are about the experience another world.
Native peoples were the first summer visitors to this magical place. They came for fish and wild game. The French came next in the 17th century, but they found the land unsuitable for farming so they moved to the mainland. They built Fort Michilimackinac and Mackinaw City in 1714. The British took control of the place in 1761 after they won control of Canada in the seven years war. But during the revolutionary war with the colonial’s advancing to claim the territory for the United States, the British in retreat moved their fort from the mainland to the island. When the conflict ended, the fort became US property. The British recaptured it during the war of 1812 but the Americans got it back again later. The federal government established Fort Mackinaw as the second US national park after Yellowstone but later gave it up. It then became Michigan’s first state park.
Male: Our 13 buildings are all original. Some of them date back to the time of the American Revolution. They’re filled with a variety of exhibits to tell the story of Mackinaw from fur trade through floods. We’ve got the whole story of Mackinaw right here.
George: This is more than a one horse town. In fact, Mackinac Island has 600 horses at work each summer. Motorized vehicles have been banned for more than a century. The village looks like a quaint upscale movie set. But it’s a thriving small community and then there’s an island landmark, Grand Hotel built in 1887 by two railroads and a steamship company. They wanted to create a place where they could transport customers for rest and relaxation away from the bustle of the big cities. Today, it’s one of just a dozen old large wood framed hotels in American, there were once about 1200.
Male: It’s a place we still value low tech entertainment. We employ more musicians than anyone else in the state of Michigan. We think that’s part of the entire experience having demitasse, afternoon tea, a full orchestra and dance band every evening and just slowing down a little bit. We have 100 rockers on the front porch just looking over the strait.
George: Grand hotel sits high on a hill overlooking the water down below. The hotel has 385 room, no two look alike and here’s something else it has. It claims this is the longest front porch in the world. 660 feet or 201 meters, now, you can spend your whole day just walking up and down the length of the porch. Let’s see how far it takes us. Keep up, keep up.
Okay, I’m about halfway down the porch, halfway and we’re still going.
I’m in the final lap. I’m close, we’re almost there, almost at the end 640, 650, 660 feet, we did it. That’s a long porch. Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer was filmed at the hotel in 1979. The Somewhere in Time fan club hosts a weekend every October.
There’s afternoon tea with musical accompaniment, you pay extra for that. You may pay for tea. The five course dinners and breakfasts are included in your room rate. Tipping is neither expected nor permitted anywhere at Grand Hotel. Instead, an added charge is applied to your tariff. Another very important tip about Grand Hotel, at dinnertime and beyond, evening wear is required in all areas of the hotel. That means a coat and tie for men, dresses or pantsuits for women and this is strictly enforced.
The founders of Mackinac Island Carriage Tours have had a prominent role in making this place Michigan’s most popular tourist attraction. It was the carriage men who petitioned the village of Mackinac Island to ban the automobile because one horseless carriage sputtering down the main street in 1898 startled the horses. Descendants of the founding carriage men still manage the company formed a century ago. Today Mackinac Island Carriage Tours is the world’s largest, oldest continually operated horse and buggy livery with approximately 100 freight and passenger carriages. The auto ban has been challenged in court but it has survived so far.
I hopped a ride with driver Dan Mitchell to see the sights. The carriage museum was first with the hearse still used when an island resident dies. Next door, the wings of mackinaw butterfly observatory. The conservatory is all glass and is filled with lush plants and hundreds of butterflies. Another highlight of the tour is Arch Rock. Local native tradition describes Arch Rock as the place where the great creator blew the breath of life into the newly created earth. Arch Rock is a natural limestone formation rising above the blue water of the Straits of Mackinaw. It is one of the most photographed spots on the island.
There are summer cottages here bigger than most people’s homes. The governor of Michigan gets a great perk, a summer retreat with a spectacular view of the surroundings. Some islanders are trying to preserve the island’s past. Take Chris West for example who works at a local restaurant but he’s put all his free time into saving a local lighthouse.
Chris: This lighthouse was built in 1851 and got decommissioned and abandoned in 1910. World War II, they used it for target practice and then we formed the organization in ’98, it actually became a federal nonprofit group in 2000.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services