Replica of Dablon's Quarters & ChurchToday we rode in someone else’s boat. A big catamaran ferry that holds 380 people when full. It was a lovely ride over to Mackinac Island, calm seas, no wind, clear skies and at the other end we met the Victorian era.

Mackinac - pronounced Mackinaw - is, first and foremost, a tourist trap. It is also a window on all of the eras making up American colonization and progress. Settled by Native Americans more than a 1000 years ago, there is archeological evidence of this in the implements, arrowheads, pottery, etc. that have been found here. The Native Americans used the island to grow food and as a burial ground. They called the island Michilimackinac or Large Turtle. It does rather look like one in outline. Many of the current residents of the island trace their families to these Indian ancestors.

It is also one of the earliest outposts of the Jesuit missionary influence among the Hurons in the 1600s. In 1670, Father Claude Dablon, a Jesuit missionary, spent the winter on the island in a bark long house which he used as a residence and as a place to teach the Natives about Christianity. In 1671, Father Jacques Marquette established a small mission at St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinac, opposite Mackinac Island. It was Marquette who, along with Louis Jolliet, paddled canoes west and were the first white men to see the Spotting the BritsMississippi River. Below the fort is a large park with a statue of Marquette. It was gracefully decorated with a seagull on top when we passed by.

The French used the island as a depot for collecting their furs from the north and the west and it was an important centre of commerce due to its situation in the lake and river systems. Trade goods were shipped from Quebec to the island and furs were sent back to Quebec. The island changed hands from the French to the British at the same time that the British took Quebec. It was the most important fort for the British to control the fur trade as they could stop the Americans from moving their furs. This probably annoyed John Jacob Astor who controlled the US fur trade.

In 1812, news of the outbreak of war between Britain and the US reached the British at St. Joseph Island (beside Drummond Island) before it reached the Americans. The British Capt. Charles Roberts brought his regiments and several hundred Indian allies from Fort St. Joseph and landed on the north side of Mackinac. That night, July 16, they moved cannons and troops across the island - on what is now called British Landing Road - to the back of the fort and surprised the Americans at breakfast. There were only about 50-60 American soldiers in the fort at that time and so the American garrison, under Lt. Porter Hanks, surrendered the fort rather than face attacks on the civilian population by a much superior force. In the blockhouse facing British Landing Road is a tableau of several American soldiers, one with spyglass in hand, peering out of a gun slit, saying “Oh my God, it’s the British!” I cracked up.

After this victory, the British then proceeded to further fortify the fort and also built another smaller fort on the highest point of the Island which they called Fort George. This fort is 320 ft above the lake level and we climbed all 141 steps up the hill (and back down) and you can see for miles in all directions. St. Ignace to the north west, Round Island to the south, and the Bois Blanc Island south of Round, and Michilimakinac - now Mackinaw City - to the south west. Mackinac Island was once called Michilimakinac so there is quite a bit of confusion here, so if I have the places mixed up I hope I will be forgiven.

View of the Mackinaw City Harbour

The Americans were upset about the loss of the fort in 1812 so in 1814 they came back to the island with a large force. This time they landed at British Landing and the Brits were on the height of land just behind the fort. Unfortunately for him, Major Holmes, second in command of the American forces, was sent with a small detachment to outflank the British. It didn’t work and Holmes was “ambushed, shot and killed”. Fort George was renamed Fort Holmes by the Americans after regaining the Island by treaty at the end of the War of 1812. There is little left of it except some log poles embedded in the ground.

The main fort was used for prisoners of war during the Civil War and then fell into disrepair. It has been almost fully reconstructed or repaired and is a wonderful site to explore. It is on a high limestone cliff overlooking the harbour to the south. The walls are made of huge chunks of limestone built upon the cliff and painted white. There are soldiers doing re-enactments, people in period costumes wandering about and the exhibits are among the best we have seen in any other similar site. Of special interest is the “Children’s Quarters” which is an area set up in part of the Officer’s Quarters. There are period games to play, life size children and adult cutouts dressed in perioed costume where they can stick their heads through and have their picture taken. It is very well thought out and a place to keep the kids amused for awhile. They also play games with them on the grounds, . One of the re-enactments going on when we were there was a court martial - the prisoner was very unhappy having to spend time in “the hole”, a small hole dug into the limestone under one of the buildings with no light and barely big enough to sit in. We spent several hours exploring the fort and the grounds before walking up the road and the stairs to Fort Holmes.

We then walked back to town and wandered along the streets looking at the old houses from the 1800s period. Many of these are also available for viewing on the same ticket as the one that provides entry to the fort and are of the same era as those in Lower Quebec City.

Main Street, MackinacAfter our fort tour and climb up to Fort Holmes, we were hot and thirsty and stopped for lunch in a very nice pub called the Yankee Rebel. Following the 1812 war, one soldier refused to surrender to the British stating he was born an American and he would stay one. So they locked him up in jail in Detroit. His wife and children remained on the island and she was referred to as “that Yankee Rebel’s wife”.

The island banned cars at the turn of the century after the first car that was brought to the island scared several horses and crashed into a couple of others. The carriage drivers were afraid for their jobs so they asked that cars be banned and so they were. They should have banned the car driver. Today the island, and particularly the downtown area, is full of carriages drawn by horses. Some of these carriages hold 4-6 people and are quite quaint while others are basically hay-wagons with rubber tires holding about 20 people. Not too classical and they take up most of the width of the roads. I think it would be nicer if they were to use only the small carriages but I suppose they couldn’t move as many people that way. There are over 300 horses on the island, most of them big Percherons or Clydesdales. They make a mess of the streets, even though there are sweepers constantly picking up after them. It is worse than walking on our marina lawns in the spring when the geese take over! And on a hot day like today it doesn’t smell very nice. And this from us folks, who are equestrians! In addition, there do not appear to be any rules of the road which is quite interesting what with these horse wagons, thousands of people on bicycles driving all over the road with no sense of keeping to right or left depending on your direction. We found ourselves having to look very carefully before crossing the road because you never knew what might be coming at you or from which direction! And it was interesting to hear one wagon driver yelling at the cyclists to slow down and get away from the horses.

The shops are the usual touristy shops with nothing really unusual or pertaining particularly to the island, except a photographer’s shop.

We decided not to take a carriage ride to explore the remainder of the island as our main interest was in the fort itself. Of course, there are other things to see; the huge Grand Hotel which was built in 3 months using 350 carpenters! You can visit the hotel, as a non-guest, if you pay $12 US. I understand that the folk who are staying there are there because of the ambience and the quiet but surely the hotel could arrange guided tours at a specific time? Also there are dozens of Victorian “cottages” built at the end of the 1800s and early 1900s. These were built for families to come and spend the summer on the island and they are all enormous buildings, beautifully constructed of wood with turrets and widow’s walks on the roofs and wonderful detailing on the outside porches. Unfortunately, they are all private and not for viewing. These “cottages” reminded us of Kenebunkport, Maine.

Harbour Entrance with Fort on the hillHowever, we have seen more than our share of this style of house/cottage, so we were on the 3 pm ferry returning to St. Ignace, with sore feet and large thirsts.

Luckily for our feet the ferry wharf is only a five minute walk from the marina.
We had been told that it was practically impossible to reserve a spot in the marina on Mackinac Island but today it was about 1/4 empty. It is right beside the ferry wharf and the boats bounce around a great deal so we were glad not to have stayed there.

You can fly from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island - it takes four minutes. I guess there’s no snacks on that run.

We put our feet up on our return to Water’s Edge and promptly fell asleep. Waking around seven we headed back to the Mackinac Grille for a quick dinner and then home to bed.

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