MICHIGAN – Mackinac Island is one of Michigan’s many, many jewels.
People have been visiting (and loving) the island for thousands of years. From being one of the most haunted places in the state, to being home of one of the country’s oldest houses, to its world-changing medical knowledge, to continually being named one of the best travel destinations, to strange legal questions you discuss around the water cooler; Mackinac Island has a lot going for it.
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Did you know it was the second U.S. National Park?
Who do we have to thank for that? That would be T. W. Ferry.
Sen. Thomas White Ferry represented Michigan in the U.S. Senate from 1871-1879. He was born on Mackinac Island in 1827 -- eight years before we even became a state! -- and spent much of his life in public service.
Seeing how popular his home island was becoming as a vacation spot, Ferry introduced Senate Bill 28 to designate the country’s second national park. Only three months later, on March 3, 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law, creating Mackinac National Park.
How did it become a state park?
The British built Fort Mackinac during the Revolutionary War to control the Straits of Mackinac and the fur trade in the Great Lakes. During the War of 1812, it was the home of two battles for control of the Great Lakes.
In 1895, the federal government didn’t believe the island was as strategically important as it once was and decommissioned Fort Mackinac. As the troops who were stationed there maintained the park, then Gov. John Rich petitioned Congress to turn Mackinac National Park over to Michigan. State lawmakers used the land to create Michigan’s first state park: Mackinac Island State Park.
The park currently takes up roughly 80% of all of Mackinac Island. It is currently maintained by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Mackinac Island State Park Commission.
It has been visited by millions of people over the years.
Michigan’s other National Park
If you’re in the mood for an iconic Great Lakes island National Park, you don’t need to leave our borders.
56 years to the day Mackinac National Park was authorized, Isle Royale National Park was authorized. It remains in control of the National Park Service.