Mackinac Island
In the heart of Michigan, the US state known for its automotive industry, there is a small island where horses are still kings.
Cradle of Detroit’s “motor city”, where companies such as Ford, General Motors and Chrysler were born, the state of Michigan in the United States is often called “the world capital of the automobile“.
However, off the northern coast of the state, on Huron Lake, there is a quiet and picturesque island that It has attracted travelers for hundreds of years “And it prohibits cars since practically they have been invented.”
Welcome to Mackinac, a 3.8-square-kilometer island, where 600 people live all year round, without motor vehicles, which has the only US road where it is not allowed to drive. Even golf carts are banned on the streets – so if you hear something like a horn or scream, it is likely to be one of the island’s geese or owls.
As Urvana Tracey Morse says, owner of a craft store on the main street of the island: “Here, the horse is king“.
Pray the local tradition that when the noise of the escape of a car scared horses that were nearby, in 1898, the village authorities prohibited internal combustion enginesa measure that was extended to the rest of the island two years later. Since then, locals have adopted this quiet lifestyle of old.
More than a century later, About 600 horses keep everything workingFrom winter to summer, when about 1.2 million people board a 20 -minute ferry from Mackinaw City or St Ignace, on the top Peninsula of Michigan, and reach the small village (also called Mackinac Island) at the south of the island.
There, visitors buy the village’s famous fudge (sweet), explore their 110 kilometers of trails and enjoy the sounds of a simpler time.
“Horses are used in everything, from trash removal to deliveries from FedEx“, Says Morse, who began selling art, jewelry and other goods after visiting the island for the first time as a college student in 1990.
“Our lifestyle is like this; this is our rhythm.”
“Part of us likes the tradition of moving by bicycle, walking or taking the taxi to horse,” he adds.
The “Place of the Great Turtle”
For hundreds of years, indigenous communities used the island’s strategic location, at the confluence of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, as fishing and hunting place. They thought their cliffs of limestone and green forests resembled a giant turtle coming out of the water, so they called her Michilimackinac, or “Place of the Great Turtle” in the local indigenous tongue.
The British forces shortened the name, and established a defensive strong on the island in 1780. Today, visitors can still follow fantasy interpreters, witness cannon shots, and see an officer’s rooms within Michigan’s oldest building. However, more than 200 years after the US took over Mackinac’s control after the 1812 war, its indigenous roots remain.
“Mackinac Island is one of the most important places [e] prominent of history and cultura anishnaabe“Says Eric Hemenway, anishnaabe member who has played an important role in rescuing indigenous history on the island.
“The people Anishnaabeek is in the narrow [os canais que conectam o Lago Huron e o Lago Michigan]according to some, since time immemorial. And we are still in the place of our ancestors here in the narrow. The waters were, and continue to be, the self-destroyed from the Midwest. ”
As Hemenway points out, a large number of indigenous cemeteries It was found on the island, some of which go back to about 3,000 years. “[Mackinac] It is one of our most sacred places in the big lakes, ”he says.
Hemenway also worked on the development of Biddle House, which houses the American Native Museum of Mackinac Island, opened in 2021.
“My biggest [métrica] Successful is when I see other natives to come by… This is our story, ”he says.
Varied attractions
In the late nineteenth century, Mackinac Island became an amusement park for rich industrial families of Chicago, Detroit and other parts of the once prosperous Midwest, who gathered on the island in summer to relax in its crystal clear waters.
The 138 -year -old Mackinac Hotel has individually decorated rooms, and claims to have The longest balcony in the world. It is also one of the last hotels in full operation of the Golden Age of Industrial America.
The Grand Hotel appeal is so great that Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer recently went to social network to suggest the island as a scenario of the fourth season of HBO’s The White Lotus series.
In fact, this small island has a lot to offer. 80% of Mackinac’s land area is made up of Mackinac Island State Park, where visitors can stroll over a centenary forestAdmire the imposing limestone pillars and make trails, ride a bike or rent a buggy to photograph one of the island’s most famous attractions – Arch Rock, 15 meters wide.
Horses aside, the 1500 bicycles Available for rent on the island are the main form of locomotion of residents and visitors – a means of autonomous transport that suggests that Mackinac residents are happy to move differently from the rest of the country.
Living in a place without cars is one of the main reasons why Morse, who rides a bike nine months a year, decided to live all year on the island, despite the rigorous winters.
“I love the idea of taking my bike and going down [até a vila] between the trees. That Prepare me for the day“, it says.
Time travel
But while cycling is the easiest and most popular means of transport, bicycles clearly play a secondary role on the island.
“Without the horses, this place would not be what it is. It is what makes you feel like it has come back in time when you leave the boat, and hear this Pocotó,” says Hunter Hoaglund, who has worked at Arnold Freight, a company that has been operating a ferry service for the island for 140 years, and transports a horses that have been winter on the upper peninsula of Michigan.
It is estimated that 20 to 30 horses remain on the island during the winter to collect garbage, deliver packages and keep the island in operation.
Surrounded by crystal clear waters, Mackinac can be isolated from the continent Periodically in winter, when ice blocks can interrupt the island’s ferry services.
But in spring and summer, Mackinac comes to life.
The dozens of lilac scattered through the streets of the village begin to flourish before the popular island’s popular lilac festival, which lasts 10 days in June.
Star observers go to Mackinac’s Fort Holmes, the highest point on the island, and the Grand Hotel’s Cupola Bar to contemplate the Northern Michigan night sky.
But for most visitors, after riding a bicycle on the island, the choice is to enjoy a ice cream or piece of fudge overlooking Marina.
And all this Without the noise of the car engine to ruin the experience.
