Early Visitors
According to Anishinaabe-Ojibwe tradition, Mackinac
Island is a sacred place populated by the first people
and was home to
the Great Spirit Gitchie Manitou. Mackinac
Island, by virtue of its location in the center of the
Great Lakes waterway, became a tribal gathering place
where
offerings were made to Gitchie Manitou and where
tribes buried their chiefs to honor the Great Spirit.
Native Americans traveling the Straits region likened
the shape of the island to that of a turtle�s back and
named it Michilimackinac, Land of the Great Turtle.
Celebrations to honor the Great Spirit took place on Mackinac
Island each spring along with rest and relaxation on after
the long northern winter. Hunters and accomplished anglers
would meet, trade and rejoin their families while elders
would discuss tribal affairs. Once
the Europeans came, these early visitors believed Gitchie
Manitou fled the Island to dwell in the Northern Lights.
Mackinac�s location and rich fish population also drew
French traders and Jesuit missionaries. In the 1670s,
the first Europeans visited Mackinac. Father Claude Dablon
wished to establish a mission on Mackinac Island and encouraged
Father Jacques Marquette to move his congregation to the
island. Eager to escape the dangers from the Huron and
Sioux conflict, Father Marquette agreed and moved his
displaced band of Huron followers to the island in 1671.
Fur Trade
At about the same time French missionaries were
converting Native Americans, French fur traders were seeking
their assistance in the lucrative fur business. For 150
years, through French, British, and American settlements
of Mackinac, the fur trade business was active on Mackinac.
Europeans would ship canoe loads of their goods to Mackinac
to trade for Indian-trapped beaver, muskrat, otter, and
fox pelts.
Military Settlement
After the French and Indian War (1754-1763),
the British moved their settlement from what is now
Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island and constructed Fort
Mackinac(www.MackinacParks.com) in 1780. Threats from
American forces as well as growing unrest in the Odawa
and Chippewa, led the British Commander Patrick Sinclair
to choose the more defensible location provided by the
island bluffs. In order to protect their interests in
the Great Lakes Fur Trade, Chippewa chiefs Kitchie Negon,
Pouanas, Koupe and Magousseihigan sold Mackinac Island
to the British on May 12, 1781 during the American Revolutionary
War (1775-1783). The Island continued as a battleground
during the War of 1812 (1812-1815), which eventually
confirmed American and Canadian independence from the
British crown. British troops were then forced to turn
Fort Mackinac over to the Americans. During the 1820s
Mackinac Island became one of the most valuable trading
posts in John Jacob Astor�s American Fur Company and
dominated life on Mackinac Island.
In the 1830s Mackinac�s primary industry switched to
fishing. Schooners and steamboats traveled the Great
Lakes and provided contact with markets hungry for the
Straits areas whitefish, lake trout, and other native
species. Small entrepreneurs dominated the fishing trade
and American Fur Company warehouses switched from storing
furs to storing fish. Before competition increased in
the area in the 1870s, Mackinac shipped as many as 20,000
barrels of fish a year. The increase in rail access
to the Straits area also hurt Island fish business as
mainland competition could take easier advantage of
this shipping method.
America�s Northern Frontier
The village of Mackinac was incorporated in
1817 and served as the seat for the territorial county
of Michilimackinac by 1818 and as the seat of Mackinac
County from 1849-1882. The territorial county of Michilimackinac
covered much of what is now Michigan. Fort Mackinac
(www.MackinacParks.com) housed the central government
for the Northern Frontier after the American Revolution.
By the end of the War of 1812, the Island figured prominently
in the governing and early development of the Northwest
Territory. Interestingly enough, Fort Mackinac served
in the Civil War as a prison for three Confederate sympathizers.
The island provided volunteers for the Civil War�s Union
cause from both its native and military ranks.
National Identity
After the Civil War, Mackinac quickly became
a popular resort destination and Mackinac�s business
switched to tourism. Its healthy environment and beautiful
scenery attracted visitors weary of war and eager for
relaxing vacations. By 1875 Congress created Mackinac
Island National Park, the country�s second national
park (the first was Yellowstone). Military operations
at the Fort had ceased and soldiers were removed from
Fort Mackinac by 1895. Mackinac Island National Park
became Michigan�s first state park in 1895 when the
park was transferred from the U.S. Government to the
State of Michigan. Today, Mackinac Island State
Park land covers more than eighty percent of the Island;
the remaining land is privately owned and includes the
boat docks, shopping district, restaurants, resorts,
hotels and summer homes. By the end of the twentieth
century, tourism had replaced furs and fishing as the
Island�s only viable industry.
Mackinac & the Victorian Era
In the 1880s and 1890s Mackinac changed greatly.
Business investment by large railroad companies and
personal wealth led to the construction of opulent Victorian
summer homes. Three transportation companies joined
forces with hotelier John Oliver Plank and with Charles
Caskey, a local cottage builder with an amazing reputation
for quick construction, and built the Grand Hotel in
less than four months. Meat packers, lumbermen, and
railroad barons constructed elegant �cottages� on Mackinac�s
West Bluff, East Bluff, and Annex areas.
The traveling public also enjoyed Mackinac�s great offerings.
Local carriage drivers were hired to take visitors on
sightseeing excursions, entertaining them with stories
about Indian legends and local history. By 1880, twelve
carriage licenses were issued, and by 1896, a representative
of the local carriage drivers, Thomas Chambers, petitioned
the Village of Mackinac Island to ban the �horseless
carriages� or automobiles because they startled the
horses.
Growing concerns for public health and safety in the
1920s led to regulatory systems which remain in effect
today to restrict motor vehicles, excluding emergency
vehicles in both the State Park and the City of Mackinac
Island. The local carriage drivers formed the Carriagemen�s
Association in the mid-1920s and by 1947 formed today�s
Mackinac Island Carriage Tours, Inc.(www.mict.com).
Preservation
The Mackinac Island State Park Commission,
the steward of the island�s historic and natural resources
began its preservation efforts in the 1890s. A revenue
bond program, signed into law by Governor G. Mennen
Williams in 1958, allowed the State Park Commission
led by Chairman W.Stewart Woodfill (then owner of Grand
Hotel)to establish an historic restoration and museum
program for the park.
