The Magic of Mackinac

One of the first things that hit you as you step off the boat is the smell, a blend ofhorse manure and fudge! Mackinac Island is famous for the soft, sugary candy and there are at least a dozen stores on Main Street making and selling it. Then there’s the other contributor to this mellifluous niff - horses!

Mackinac’s main street is chaotic but in an organic way

There isn’t one car on this island! Motorised vehicles were banned here in the late 1800s and it's stayed that way ever since. Instead, there are 600 horses and as many as 10,000 bicycles. And in spite of the odd aroma, what a breath of fresh air it all is!

It’s amazing just how much more relaxed you become when there are no cars about. It would be a far better world without them!

VANILLA FUDGE

Fudge and Mackinac have been synonymous since the late 19th century when Main Street shops began to produce creamy candy for summer vacationers. Locals now refer to visitors as ‘Fudgies’!

GRAND HOTEL

We had fudge to eat and a horse-drawn cab to transport us to the Grand Hotel. My son was invited to ‘ride shotgun' next to the cab driver who talked him into considering the cab driver's life on Mackinac as a summer vacation job. “Drive horses, eat fudge. What can you complain about?” asked Ewan. “Tourists!” was the driver’s deadpan reply. The island has a year-round resident population of 492 but it gets flooded with as many as 15,000 visitors every day throughout the summer.

THE GRAND HOTEL

The Grand Hotel sits above town, the crown jewel of Mackinac's Victorian splendour. In its time, it was the largest resort hotel in the world, built entirely of Michigan White Pine and put together in no less than 93 days. “Why the rush?” I asked our driver

It had been billed as a summer retreat for vacationers from Chicago, Erie, Montreal and Detroit who arrived in droves. All 180 rooms were sold out for the ‘Grand’ opening with a nightly rate between $3 to $5. The hotel went on to become a retreat for U.S. Presidents such as Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Even Mark Twain was a regular.

You have to dress for dinner; jacket and ties for gents and evening wear for ladies. This all adds to the sense of occasion as you parade past the hundreds of diners already seated in the enormous but less emphatically named ‘Main Dining Room’. Actually, I noticed above the door it was more genteelly entitled ‘salle à manger’ - French for Main Dining Room!

After dinner everyone parades along the porch, the longest in the world! Mackinac is so walking-friendly, we took our after-dinner stroll down to the water to enjoy the views and admired some of the pleasantly lit Victorian buildings in town, all perfectly preserved and presented. Main Street is a lot quieter at night when the day-tripping ‘Fudgies’ have flitted back to the mainland.

THE JEWEL

It was time for golf. Mackinac offers two courses and both of them are seriously charming. Take 'The Jewel' for instance just across the street from the Grand's main entrance. The Jewel is comprised of two halves, the Grand-9 and the Woods-9 set towards the centre of Mackinac Island. The Grand 9 was built in 1901 and redesigned in 1987. The Woods 9 was added in 1994. It’s a half-hour’s ride away and you get there by horse-drawn carriage so this makes the Jewel a rather unique encounter. It is not a championship test by any means but a feat of accuracy on holes such as the 7th, a long Par 3 descending from a bluff and tightly tree-lined. The green like Sawgrass 17th is almost completely surrounded with water.

WAWASHKIMO

Next we rode our hire-bikes a mile or so inland to Wawashkimo Golf Club, a wee touch of Scotland in the midst of the Midwest. Wawashkamo is one of Michigan’s ‘Most Historic Golf Courses’ established by Alex Smith of Carnoustie, Scotland back in 1892. It’s a simple design over a flat tract of land but it throws up some surprising twists, especially when you play it with a set of Hickory Clubs as we did, available for hire from the golf shop.

Playing with hickory is much different than with modern clubs. You could, as Chuck Olson, the club professional gently warned us, easily snap a shaft. Hickories require a slower, more flowing motion to compensate for the shaft’s natural whippiness. We soon got used to them and enjoyed a tremendous round. “This is my favourite round of the entire trip,” said Ewan. The 3rd green is Wawashikamo's most unusual, surrounded by a high, grassy circle. Known as the “Circus Ring” for obvious reasons, this feature was in put in early in the course’s life. It was much higher then and encircled the green completely encouraging golfers to loft the ball. Now the grass is not so high and it has an opening to aim for.

You'll also notice how 'burned out' the grass looks at Wawashkamo, harking back again to old Scottish links when during the summer months the fairways were never watered. Once again Wawashkamo gets a tick for its authenticity; after all it is the oldest continuously played golf course in The State of Michigan!

Another interesting morsel from here is Frank Dufina, the first 'Native American' golf professional, commenced his career at Wawashkimo in the 1890's when the club was newly opened. He was fourteen years old then and rose to become the club's professional, not giving up that post until he reached the grand old age of eighty-four. I guess he liked it too!

BIKE TOUR

It was back in the saddle and off on a round-island tour. With a two-wheeled steed, Mackinac Island is easy and exciting to explore. Rather than join the peddling throngs on the island's main circular route, we decided to go off-road & cross country. There are trails all across the interior of the island that are fun and offer great prospects from on high. They ultimately connect with the more popular tourist spots such as Arch Rock or Fort Mackinac.

FORT MACKINAC

Fort Mackinac was established by the British during the American Revolution. The British captured the fort in the very first battle of the conflict - a little unfairly I thought. The Americans at that point had not yet heard that war had been declared. All is fair in love and war so they say and today, this is the oldest building in all of Michigan.

STONE CAIRNS

Along Lake Huron's shoreline, there are hundreds of precariously balanced Stone Cairns adding an artistic touch to the scenery and giving visitors the chance to make their mark. I think they build these little monuments because they don’t want to leave. Mackinac is such a unique place in this hectic, car-polluted world, we can all identify with its more natural rhythms.

Our time on Mackinac Island was drawing to a close, and with reluctance, we caught one of the last ferries back to the mainland that evening. Mackinac Island is so relaxing, you could easily spend a week enjoying its walking, bike rides and golf. And imagine the world as it once was!

Contacts:

David and Ewan Whyte stayed at The Grand Hotel, www.thegrandhotel.com where you can golf and arrange bicycle hire. They sailed to Mackinac Island with Shepley’s Ferries www.sheplersferry.com and played golf at Wawashkamo Golf Club www.wawashkamo.com. For further information contact www.mackinacisland.org

Wawashikimo

We rode our hire bikes a mile or so inland to Wawashkimo Golf Club, a touch of Scotland in the midst of the Midwest. Wawashkamo is one of Michigan’s ‘Most Historic Golf Courses’ established by Alex Smith from Carnoustie, Scotland back in 1892. I discovered it years ago and it has become a place of pilgrimage.

They invited me

It’s a simple design over a flat tract of land but it throws up some surprising twists, especially when you play it with a set of Hickory Clubs as we did, available for hire from the golf shop.

Playing with hickory is much different than with modern clubs. You could, as Chuck Olson, the club professional gently warned us, easily snap a shaft. Hickories require a slower, more flowing motion to compensate for the shaft’s natural whippiness. We soon got used to them and enjoyed a tremendous round. “This is my favourite round of the entire trip,” said Ewan. The 3rd green is Wawashikamo's most unusual, surrounded by a high, grassy circle. Known as the “Circus Ring” for obvious reasons, this feature was in put in early in the course’s life. It was much higher then and encircled the green completely encouraging golfers to loft the ball. Now the grass is not so high and it has an opening to aim for.

You'll also notice how 'burned out' the grass looks at Wawashkamo, harking back again to old Scottish links when during the summer months the fairways were never watered. Once again Wawashkamo gets a tick for its authenticity; after all it is the oldest continuously played golf course in The State of Michigan!

Another interesting morsel from here is Frank Dufina, the first 'Native American' golf professional, commenced his career at Wawashkimo in the 1890's when the club was newly opened. He was fourteen years old then and rose to become the club's professional, not giving up that post until he reached the grand old age of eighty-four. I guess he liked it too!

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.