Mackinac Island, the island with no cars

In the state that put the world on wheels, there’s one place where you can’t drive at all: Mackinac Island. Cars have been banned here since 1898, when the island’s horse-drawn carriage drivers convinced the village council to outlaw the noisy new “horseless carriages” that were spooking their horses. More than a century later, the ban still holds — making this little island in the Straits of Mackinac one of the only places in the country with no automobiles.

So how do people get around? By bicycle, on foot, and by horse. Some six hundred horses work the island in summer, pulling carriages, hauling freight, and even collecting the trash, and there are well over a thousand bikes for rent. The one road that circles the shoreline, M-185, is the only state highway in America where cars aren’t allowed. In winter, when the ferries slow down and the snow flies, residents switch to snowmobiles. (Emergency vehicles are the lone exception to the rule.)

Most of the island is preserved as Mackinac Island State Park — which was actually the second national park in the country, after Yellowstone, before Michigan took it over. About six hundred people live here year-round, mostly clustered in the village, but in summer the island fills with visitors drawn to the Grand Hotel, the historic fort, the Victorian cottages, and more fudge shops than you can count. Living here is a singular way of life: quiet, walkable, and unlike anywhere else in Michigan — though anything you can’t get on the island comes over by ferry.