Mackinac Island in Michigan

11 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  15 minutes

Main Street © n8huckins/cc-by-sa-4.0

Main Street © n8huckins/cc-by-sa-4.0

Mackinac Island is an island and resort area, covering 4.35 square miles (11.3 km²) in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac and “Mitchimakinak” in Ojibwemowin meaning “Big Turtle”. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was long home to an Odawa settlement and previous indigenous cultures before European colonization began in the 17th century. It was a strategic center of the fur trade around the Great Lakes. Based on a former trading post, Fort Mackinac was constructed on the island by the British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the site of two battles during the War of 1812 before the northern border was settled and the US gained this island in its territory. In the late 19th century, Mackinac Island became a popular tourist attraction and summer colony. Many of the structures on the island have undergone extensive historical preservation and restoration. Because of its historic significance, the entire island is listed as a National Historic Landmark. It is well known for numerous cultural events; a wide variety of architectural styles, including the Victorian Grand Hotel; and its ban on almost all motor vehicles, with exceptions only for city emergency vehicles (ambulance, police cars and fire trucks), city service vehicles and snowmobiles in winter. More than 80 percent of the island is preserved as Mackinac Island State Park. In 2022, Travel + Leisure named Mackinac Island the best island in the continental U.S. to visit.   read more…

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island

1 September 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, House of the Month, Hotels Reading Time:  12 minutes

© flickr.com - Eli Duke/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Eli Duke/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Grand Hotel is a historic hotel and coastal resort on Mackinac Island in Michigan, a small island located at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac within Lake Huron between the state’s Upper and Lower peninsulas. Constructed in the late 19th century, the facility advertises itself as having the world’s largest veranda. The Grand Hotel is well known for a number of notable visitors, including five U.S. presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, inventor Thomas Edison, and author Mark Twain. Grand Hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 1957, the Grand Hotel was designated a State Historic Building. In 1972, the hotel was named to the National Register of Historic Places, and on June 29, 1989, the hotel was made a National Historic Landmark.   read more…

The Great Lakes of North America

28 November 2011 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Downtown Chicago from the lakefront © J. Crocker

Downtown Chicago from the lakefront © J. Crocker

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume behind Baikal in Russia. The total surface is 208,610 km2 (80,545 sq mi), and the total volume is 22,560 km3 (5,412 cu mi) The lakes are sometimes referred to as the North Coast or “Third Coast” by some citizens of the United States. The Great Lakes hold 21% of the world’s surface fresh water.   read more…

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