Mackinac Island, Michigan (Plan your next visit today) - Scout Eric Adventures
- last year
NO CARS, lots of HORSES and a gazillion BIKES, that is Mackinac Island, Michigan. This Island has everything, 70 plus miles of biking and hiking trails, many fudge shops, museums, restaurants, and movie sets. The only way to access the island is by boat or air.
Follow my adventure of the island and its many historical sites and attraction. You can rent bikes by the hour or day. We decided to bike the entire island and see as much as possible in a single day. Although, you could easily spend another day and take a carriage ride and or walk the board walk. Also, if your local take your own bikes.
VICTORIAN ERA
It was the Victorians who made Mackinac Island one of the nation's most favored summer resorts. In the post-Civil War industrial age and before automobiles, vacationers traveled by large lake excursion boats from Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit to the cooler climes of Mackinac Island. They danced to Strauss' waltzes, listened to Sousa's stirring marches, dined on whitefish and strolled along the broad decks. To accommodate overnight guests boat and railroad companies built summer hotels, such as the Grand Hotel in the late 19th century. Victorians, like travelers everywhere, shopped for souvenirs, and Mackinac shops supplied them.
In the 1890's wealthy Midwestern industrialists who wanted to spent more than a few nights on Mackinac built their own summer cottages on the east and west bluffs. Soon a social life including tennis, hiking, bicycling, examining the local natural wonders, and at the turn of the century, golf at on the new Wawashkamo Golf Course.
NO CARS
Perhaps the most noticeable first impression visitors get of Mackinac Island is the absence of automobiles! Visitors and residents travel by foot, bicycle or horse drawn carriage. This tempo is more comparable to the 19th century. Tour carriages and taxis will take you wherever you want to go and it's not long before you adjust to a slower pace most visitors have never known.
With over 80% of Mackinac Island in public hands you would expect little development and, fortunately, that's true. Concerned with the disappearance of America's finest natural treasures, Congress took steps in the early 1870s to ensure that some of these treasures would be preserved for posterity. In 1872 the federal government designated Yellowstone America's first national park. In 1875 portions of federal land on popular Mackinac Island were given similar protection.
Other than issuing a small number of land leases for the sites of bluff cottages, all development was stopped. This ensured the preservation of most of the natural limestone formations such as Skull Cave, Arch Rock and Sugar Loaf. Twenty years later, when the last U.S. army soldiers left Fort Mackinac, all federal land, including the fort, became Michigan's first state park. The newly appointed Park Commission limited all private development in the park and required leaseholders to maintain the distinctive Victorian arch
Follow my adventure of the island and its many historical sites and attraction. You can rent bikes by the hour or day. We decided to bike the entire island and see as much as possible in a single day. Although, you could easily spend another day and take a carriage ride and or walk the board walk. Also, if your local take your own bikes.
VICTORIAN ERA
It was the Victorians who made Mackinac Island one of the nation's most favored summer resorts. In the post-Civil War industrial age and before automobiles, vacationers traveled by large lake excursion boats from Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit to the cooler climes of Mackinac Island. They danced to Strauss' waltzes, listened to Sousa's stirring marches, dined on whitefish and strolled along the broad decks. To accommodate overnight guests boat and railroad companies built summer hotels, such as the Grand Hotel in the late 19th century. Victorians, like travelers everywhere, shopped for souvenirs, and Mackinac shops supplied them.
In the 1890's wealthy Midwestern industrialists who wanted to spent more than a few nights on Mackinac built their own summer cottages on the east and west bluffs. Soon a social life including tennis, hiking, bicycling, examining the local natural wonders, and at the turn of the century, golf at on the new Wawashkamo Golf Course.
NO CARS
Perhaps the most noticeable first impression visitors get of Mackinac Island is the absence of automobiles! Visitors and residents travel by foot, bicycle or horse drawn carriage. This tempo is more comparable to the 19th century. Tour carriages and taxis will take you wherever you want to go and it's not long before you adjust to a slower pace most visitors have never known.
With over 80% of Mackinac Island in public hands you would expect little development and, fortunately, that's true. Concerned with the disappearance of America's finest natural treasures, Congress took steps in the early 1870s to ensure that some of these treasures would be preserved for posterity. In 1872 the federal government designated Yellowstone America's first national park. In 1875 portions of federal land on popular Mackinac Island were given similar protection.
Other than issuing a small number of land leases for the sites of bluff cottages, all development was stopped. This ensured the preservation of most of the natural limestone formations such as Skull Cave, Arch Rock and Sugar Loaf. Twenty years later, when the last U.S. army soldiers left Fort Mackinac, all federal land, including the fort, became Michigan's first state park. The newly appointed Park Commission limited all private development in the park and required leaseholders to maintain the distinctive Victorian arch