Monday, June 5, 2023
Since you can't control the weather on a roadtrip, I booked two days in Mackinaw City. The logic being, I then had two chances at a nice day for Machinac Island. This left me with the whole day and nowhere I had to be. Kinda nice actually.
The Bridgeview Diner is just a few blocks walk from the motel. It seemed the perfect place to start. Lenny owns the place and does most of the cooking. It was pretty quiet when I arrived.
Inside, it's a stereotypical diner with an eclectic mix of '60s music playing on the PA. Lenny and I were chatting while he cooked my eggs. The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" came on. I commented how many times I've heard it and it doesn't get old. That's when he told me his Rolling Stones story. In his youth, he and some friends had tickets to see them in concert. The show was a bit of a drive and they piled into the car and took off. En route, they partied a little extra hearty, got pulled over and arrested. The charges were all dropped in the morning. But, they missed the show.
On the walk back to the motel, I passed a place called Wienerlicious. Of course they had a giant hot dog on their roof.
After breakfast, I drove out to the McGulpin Point Lighthouse. Construction began on the point in 1869. There were already lighthouses at the east and west entrances to the Mackinaw Strait. This would warn passing ships of the rocky coastline.
James Davenport was assigned as Lighthouse Keeper in 1879. Not only was he in charge of the lighthouse, but his weekly reports gave the shipping industry regular updates on conditions, especially important as ice built up in winter and broke up in the spring. He stayed on until 1906 when the new lighthouse was lit three miles to the east. It was decided this one was no longer necessary, so Davenport turned the light off and closed up the building,
One year after being shut down, the property was put up for auction. The winning bid was considered far too low and rejected. It would eventually be purchased in 1913. Emmet County bought it in 2008, restored the light and it was relit a year later.
The county also offers accommodations in another building on site. This time of year it will run you $300 a night. Click here for interior pictures.
Behind the lighthouse, there's a short trail down to the water. In 1983, Michigan designated the 148 square mile Straits of Mackinaw as a shipwreck preserve. Some of the easier ones are marked with buoys for divers. However, as a preserve, you're not allowed to bring anything back up with you.
After a quick stop back in the room, it was time to go explore Mackinaw City.
For reference:
That big island on the right is Bois Blanc Island(pr; Boys Blank) It's named for the birch and basswood trees on the island. You can get there by ferry. You can even take your car. The roads are seldom maintained. But, the fifty-one year round residents don't seem to mind. In 1829, they were the first to get a lighthouse. There would eventually be eight covering both the Lake Huron and Lake Michigan sides of the strait.
Congress was lobbied and eventually agreed a light and fog station was needed at Mackinac Point, the northern most tip of the city, close to where the bridge is now. In 1889 they authorized funding, but it was just enough for the fog station.
They tried anchoring a lightship just offshore. That wasn't working. Three years later, construction began of the Old Mackinac Point Light.
As for that bridge, The Mackinaw City Bridge is five miles in length and was completed in 1957, though talk of a bridge goes back as far as 1888. In 1923 the state legislature set up a state ferry service across the strait. In the first year ten thousand cars used the service.
In 1928, Governor Greene ordered a feasibility study for either a bridge or tunnel. The project was dropped when the estimated bill for the bridge reached $30 million.
In 1939, the Mackinac Straits Bridge Authority of Michigan published a booklet with pictures of ferries stuck in ice or simply unable to cross due to the entire straight being froze over. It recounted reports of people abandoning their cars and walking across on the ice. In another occurrence, a ferry was stuck mid passage. Since it was obviously not going anywhere, some passengers climbed down on the ice and finished crossing on foot.
In November, 1954 it was another problem. Deer hunting season had begun on the upper peninsula. With limited ferry space, this always created back-ups. This year, the traffic jam stretched sixteen miles, all the way back to Cheboygan.
A year after the bridge first opened, Governor Williams led 68 people across the bridge by foot. This was a planned event that took off in the ensuing years. The annual event was moved to Labor Day and the bridge is closed to vehicular traffic from 6:30A to noon. You can read about this year's event here:
That haze is actually smoke from multiple wildfires both in Canada and the Upper Peninsula.
As for the color scheme, the designers didn't want to go with generic gray. They chose to go with green and ivory simply because they saw an artist's rendering in a magazine and liked the way it looked.
Along with the lighthouse, sits Fort Michilimackinac. The French built the fort in 1715 to protect both their fur trade and the Jesuit Mission across the strait. The British took over the fort after the French and Indian War.
It was early afternoon and I still wasn't thinking food. But, I did stop into the Mackinac Island Brewing Company for a quick pint or two.
Just inside the door...
Back out to the bridge, A little less hazy.
On the Lake Michigan side of Mackinaw City is where you'll find a place called the Headlands International Dark Sky Park. Inside the park grounds are five miles of hiking trails. I chose a loop that would take me a little over two. The trails are mostly level, well marked and cared for.
If you take the park road to the end, there's a sign forbidding white light after dark. This park is specifically designed for stargazing and a popular place for seeing the Northern Lights in the winter.
Considering the haze, I didn't drive back for sunset. Instead, I walked the six blocks back to the park by the Mackinaw Bridge.
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