A short history of Mackinac Island

To the Anishinaabe, this island was sacred long before any fort or hotel stood here. They called it Michilimackinac — the “Great Turtle” — for the way its high, rounded back rises out of the water. For centuries it was a gathering place, and later a crossroads of the Great Lakes fur trade.

The British built Fort Mackinac on the island’s limestone bluffs in 1780, during the Revolutionary War, moving their garrison over from the mainland. The Americans took it over after the war, lost it back to the British in the War of 1812, and finally held it for good. The fort still looks out over the harbor today, with its whitewashed walls, costumed soldiers, and booming cannon — and the Officers’ Stone Quarters inside is often called the oldest building in the state.

When the fur trade faded, the island reinvented itself as a grand summer resort. Wealthy families came up by steamship and train, built the gingerbread Victorian cottages that still line the bluffs, and in 1887 the Grand Hotel opened its doors — famous for what it bills as the longest front porch in the world.

That same year, the Murdick family opened the island’s first candy shop, and the fudge they cooked on marble slabs became such a sensation that Mackinac now calls itself the Fudge Capital of the World. (Visitors are still cheerfully called “fudgies.”) Add in landmarks like Arch Rock, a natural limestone arch high above Lake Huron, and you have one of the most storied little islands in America. You can plan a visit at mackinacisland.org.