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Marvelous Mackinac

By Chris McBeath When a hotel bills itself as a living, working museum, you could be forgiven if images of straw mattresses, creaky floors and Great Expectations come to mind. Well prepare yourself.

By Chris McBeath

When a hotel bills itself as a living, working museum, you could be forgiven if images of straw mattresses, creaky floors and Great Expectations come to mind. Well prepare yourself. Tucked between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, Michigan not only boasts one of America’s most unique getaway jewels in Mackinac Island, it’s a jewel crowned with a hotel that goes beyond expectations. In fact, since opening in 1887, The Grand has become one of the most historically significant hotels in the United States.

Delivering the unexpected could also apply to Mackinac Island itself. Barely 4.5 square miles, this tiny island is 80 per cent natural parkland with trails that wind through the forests and around the scenic lakeshore. Add to this, the island’s once strategic location, and you find its small acreage packed with stories from the past. There’s the Indian influence — they believed the island was the birthplace of Michabou, god of all waters; as well as waves of different settlers which left behind their missions, churches and forts. There is a restored 18th century British fort, a recreated 19th century Colonial village, and turn-of-the-20th century Victorian architecture housing shops, galleries and beautifully crafted heritage homes.

All this, and not a car in sight.

That’s because when the first motorized carriage sputtered its noisy way onto the peaceful island in 1898, it caused such uproar that vehicles were quickly banned. Remarkably, more than 100 years later, the ban is still in force — horse carriages, pedal power and walking are still the only modes of transport allowed!

Then, as now, the Grand Hotel is the centerpiece of the Mackinac Island, and the main reason for the annual influx of more than one million island visitors. Tourism makes up for 99 per cent of the island’s economy, with fudge exports accounting for the rest.

Originally financed by two railroads and a steamship company, the hotel was, in fact, a cheaper way of using up over 1.5 million feet of island pine than shipping the lumber to the mainland. The idea was to create a cool summer haven for the Victorian elite, and a destination that would appeal to their lavish, over-the-top sensibilities. With summer fast approaching, speed was of the essence so, with some 600 workers putting in three shifts a day, the hotel rose from the ground and opened for business in a record-breaking 93 days. At $3 a night, rooms were deliberately cheap, which encouraged guests to stay the entire season. The Grand is, perhaps, the only hotel in history, to have been built to lose money since the company reveled in the transportation costs (rail and ferry) that were levied against every guest, their entourage of bags and servants as well as their occasional off-island excursion.

Without doubt, The Grand’s most eye-catching feature is its 660 foot long colonnaded front porch. Purported to be the longest in the world, it was once featured in Robert L. Ripley’s nationally syndicated newspaper cartoon “Believe It Or Not”. Another Grand delight is the Watchtower — a tiny domed room atop the building that overlooks the Mackinac Strait, and the five-mile long Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in North America. Look, too, for architectural mishaps. Because many of the workers were illiterate, pre-measured sticks were used to help keep a uniform size to windows and doors. In the haste of construction, however, it’s apparent that sometimes a worker must have picked the wrong stick as you’ll find the occasional window the size of a door, and vice versa!

The Grand’s history is equally colourful. For example, during Prohibition, the Grand was famous for its swinging parties and gambling soirées and boasted not one day when the hotel was dry. After all, police raids always involved a water-crossing which could be seen from the watchtower, so by the time any law brigade arrived, rooms had been shifted behind ball bearing walls and roulette tables stowed beneath specially designed stairs.

For all its delightful quirks, The Grand is a still masterpiece, intent on “gift wrapping a summer memory” with an almost theatrical atmosphere of summer whimsy and elegance, matching whicker furniture and bright floral cushions alongside a variety of art and antiques. It’s as if the interior is reflecting elements of the surrounding 167 acres of garden where flower beds are filled with 25,000 tulips, 15,000 daffodils, 125,000 annuals and 2,500 geraniums as well as places to swim, play tennis, croquet, golf and Bocci ball.

It seems that where ever you go in the hotel, there’s another story or intriguing fact. The hotel’s list includes five standing presidents: Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton; and demonstrating unparalleled family values, it retained all 400 staff one season during World War II, when only 11 guests showed up.

Today, the battalion of staff is nearer to 600, but the facts are no less fun. Over 100 of them work in the kitchen serving up to 4,000 meals a day; the hotel boasts the longest kitchen “dirty dish” conveyor belt in the country; and has a signature dessert (the Grand Pecan Ball) that is so popular over 50,000 are served each season. Then there are the movie credits: MGM’s Technicolor musical This Time for Keeps with Jimmy Durante and Esther Williams, and more recently Somewhere in Time , starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Although the film met with mixed reviews, the title is an apt description of the Mackinac experience. When you take the passenger ferry across the Strait to Mackinac Island, you’re actually crossing over time-lines to be a part of history unlike anywhere else in the United States. And it’s a history worth savouring.

IF YOU GO

The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island Michigan Tel: 906/847-3331 or 800/33-GRAND; www.grandhotel.com

Island Activities

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse; founded 1889

Colonial Michilimackinac; a 1715 British fort and working village

Historic Mill Creak; a 1790s water-powered sawmill

Fort Mackinac; complete with uniformed 1880s U.S. soldiers firing rifles and canon

Historic downtown; shops, galleries, heritage missionary churches

For information: 231-436-4100 or www.mackinacparks.com