FEATURE
Interpreting Wonder on the Wonderful Isle
Arch Rock is Mackinac Island’s most renowned natural wonder. Photo by Kyle Bagnall.
The natural wonders of Mackinac Island have drawn people to its rocky shores for thousands of years. Located in the Straits of Mackinac, between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, the island first emerged about 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Dominated by towering cliffs and fantastic limestone formations, Mackinac Island has been regarded as sacred by the Anishinaabek for millennia. Tradition holds that the island’s original name, Michilimackinac, translates as “Great Turtle” in Anishinaabemowin. From a distance, the island’s profile resembles a giant turtle rising from Great Lakes waters.
Europeans arrived at the straits in the mid-seventeenth century, with French Jesuit missionaries establishing Catholic traditions which persist today. Between 1715-1840, the region was the center of a lucrative fur trade, characterized by a complex interplay of Native, French, Metis, British, and American cultures. In 1780, British troops constructed Fort Mackinac on a high bluff overlooking the small village along a crescent-shaped bay. Today, the fort contains fourteen original structures, including Michigan’s oldest building.
Tourism replaced the fur trade at Mackinac in the mid-nineteenth century. Visitors marveled at unique geology, a healthful climate, and crystal waters while immersing themselves in Native American lore and historical charm. In 1875, nearly half the island was preserved as Mackinac National Park, the country’s second national park. A new trade flourished, dominated by luxurious steamships and hotels, palatial cottages, horse-drawn carriages, and quiet woodland paths. U.S. troops at Fort Mackinac acted as park caretakers, while the commandant served as superintendent.
The island gained widespread notoriety as tourists arrived from across the globe. Inspired by a prevailing sense of wonder, guests bestowed innumerable sobriquets on the remote North Woods paradise. The 1886 volume Summer Resorts and Waters of Northern Michigan described it as follows:
“No one who has ever visited Mackinac, the ‘Wonderful Isle,’ the gem of the straits, can accurately describe the beauties of that lovely island. As well as might one attempt to paint the rainbow or gild the rays of the setting sun. It is, indeed, the Wonderful Isle, and well worthy of a long journey for a visit.”
After two decades of national park status, the U.S. military abandoned Fort Mackinac in 1895. Federal lands were transferred to the State of Michigan, with mandates to protect the island as a park for the public. Managed by the newly formed Mackinac Island State Park Commission, Michigan’s first state park became the steward of renowned natural wonders. To preserve natural beauty and a historical aesthetic, automobiles have been banned on Mackinac Island since 1898.
Today, the mission of Mackinac State Historic Parks (MSHP) is strongly rooted in its original national park mandate. Our network of parks includes sites on Mackinac Island and in nearby Mackinaw City, at the tip of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. MSHP aims to protect, preserve, and present Mackinac’s rich historic and natural resources, while providing outstanding educational and recreational experiences for the public. In short, we strive to foster a sense of wonder for all visitors in every season.
William Dashwood painted this Mackinac Island scene in the 1820s. The original work is displayed in the Richard & Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum. Photo courtesy of Mackinac State Historic Parks.
Sharing Anishinaabek Perspectives
Native Americans have honored Mackinac Island as a sacred gathering place of inspiration, refuge, and repose for thousands of years. Seen as the center of the Anishinaabek world, many Odawa, Ojibwa, and Pottawatomie families have held seasonal ceremonies on the island for generations. In centuries past, most geological formations, especially the island’s caves, were used as burial sites for revered ancestors.
As nineteenth-century visitors explored the island, Native American graves were often looted, with remains treated as curiosities. At the same time, tourists eagerly purchased birchbark crafts, mokoks of maple sugar, and split ash baskets from Odawa and Ojibwa residents, many of whom struggled to survive challenging circumstances. Books replete with “Indian legends,” most by non-Native authors, were published for decades until original sources were long forgotten, with many tales being entirely fabricated or whittled down to altered forms.
Over the past decade, MSHP has worked closely with local Anishinaabek groups to weave modern Native voices into exhibits and programs. Park staff, working closely with the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, have completed projects such as the Native American Cultural History Trail, featuring roadside stations along Lakeshore Boulevard (M-185). Encircling Mackinac Island, the eight-mile roadway is the only state highway in the nation which bans motorized vehicles. In 2016, large interpretive panels were installed at six points near the Lake Huron shore, including rest stations with bicycle parking. Transcending a typical historical narrative, the panels incorporate cultural and sacred significance of Mackinac Island as well as Anishinaabek life in the twenty-first century.
A more recent collaboration entailed reinterpretation of the Biddle House, an early nineteenth-century fur trader’s residence. In 2021, the site reopened after Covid-19 closures as the Mackinac Island Native American Museum. The exhibition, Agatha’s Mackinac, tells the local Anishinaabek story through the life of Agatha Biddle (1791-1873), the Odawa wife of fur trader Edward Biddle. The exhibit includes full-size video screens featuring local Anishinaabek residents sharing their own perspectives. This effectively takes Native American history “off the shelf” (or out of the exhibit case) and speaks directly to visitors. Exhibits and programs at other sites, notably an American Indian interpreter at Colonial Michilimackinac, offer additional opportunities to share Anishinaabek perspectives of wonder at the Straits of Mackinac.
Eric Hemenway, Director of Repatriation, Archives, and Records for the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, speaks at the Native American Cultural History Trail dedication (2016). Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Biddle House Mackinac Island Native American Museum Logo. Photo courtesy of Mackinac State Historic Parks.
Mae Wright, American Indian Interpreter, prepares to greet guests at Colonial Michilimackinac, in Mackinaw City. Photo courtesy of Mackinac State Historic Parks.
Natural Wonders of the Wonderful Isle
Today, more than 80% of Mackinac Island’s 2,400 acres are preserved as part of Mackinac Island State Park. As visitors approach by ferry, they are struck by a ring of deep green conifers near the shore, while mixed hardwood forests dominate interior uplands. Botanists have studied plant life on Mackinac Island since August 1810, when British naturalist Thomas Nuttall arrived in a birchbark canoe. Over the past two centuries, about 600 species of plants have been identified on the island, including 270 wildflowers.
During his visit in 1861, the ailing Henry David Thoreau spent six days botanizing at Mackinac. In subsequent decades, visitors expressed innumerable ecstasies over the island’s rich plant life. In July 1879, evergreens inspired C.P. Townsley to pen the following for the Arkansas Valley Democrat:
“A National Park is the Mackinac Island,
Embowered with cedar, hemlock, and pine;
Our pen cannot give you its grandeur and beauty,
‘Twas enchanting, bewitching; divinely sublime.”
Mackinac Island’s unique geology has also inspired generations of geologists, paleontologists, and amateur rockhounds. In 1802, some of the island’s most famous rock formations were first described by Dr. Frances LeBarron. In 1820, British officer John Bigsby noted the unusual nature of limestone at the straits, finding it was composed of broken fragments which had subsequently recemented. Later termed Mackinac breccia, this recemented limestone is much harder than its original form. As postglacial lakes eroded the island’s shorelines, softer rock slowly washed away, leaving sea stacks, arches, caves, and promontories. Mackinac’s unique geological wonders are all composed of Mackinac breccia.
Established in 1895, Mackinac Island State Park now covers over 1,800 acres, about 80% of the island’s landmass. Photo courtesy of Mackinac State Historic Parks.
Northern White Cedar roots search for a foothold on Mackinac Island limestone. Photo by Kyle Bagnall.
View of Lake Huron from Tranquil Bluff Trail. Mackinac Island rises above the largest freshwater system on Earth. The Wonderful Isle sits like an emerald jewel on crystal clear waters. Photo by Kyle Bagnall.
Exciting the Wonder of All Beholders
Arch Rock is the most dazzling example of the island’s breccia formations. Exposed along the eastern shore, the delicate feature rises 146 feet above Lake Huron, spanning 40 feet between two breccia outcroppings. Sculpted about 4,000 years ago by postglacial Lake Nippising, the slender span has defied gravity for millennia.
Rich in story and legend, Anishinaabek residents have long recognized the site as one of Mackinac Island’s sacred places. Eric Hemenway, Director of Repatriation, Archives, and Records for the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, notes that Arch Rock still holds spiritual significance for many Anishinaabe people. “What I’ve learned, and have heard others speak of,” he said, “is that spirits reside in and around these areas, making them sacred.” As such, some stories are only shared in ceremony during certain times of the year. He encourages guests to explore the island to discover what special places call to them.
Over the past two centuries, innumerable visitors have experienced Arch Rock with a pencil, pen, paintbrush, or camera in hand. In August 1888, editor Jasper F. Meeks arrived during a terrible thunderstorm. Recounting the event for the Semi-Weekly Age of Coshocton, Ohio, he wrote, “There are scenes here that excel, and inspire one with greater respect and admiration for the forms of nature. Arch Rock, on the eastern shore of Mackinac Island, is the one sight on this island that is worth the entire journey, and is probably excelled in grandeur in but few places on the continent.”
Interpreting Arch Rock
In May 2024, Mackinac State Historic Parks opened the Milliken Nature Center at Arch Rock. Funded in part by grants from the State of Michigan, the facility was named for former Michigan Governor William Milliken (1922-2019). Designed by TowerPinkster Architects, the building blends harmoniously with its surroundings, respecting the island’s unique geology, rich flora, and panoramic views. Construction made ample use of natural limestone, exposed wood, natural light, and abundant native plantings. Expansive windows, manufactured by Guardian Glass, include Guardian Bird1st™ UV treatment, designed to protect the island’s abundant bird life.
A new exhibition, Arch Rock: Unsurpassed in Nature’s Handiwork, interprets the island’s most iconic natural wonder. Guests immerse themselves in Mackinac geology, from limestone formation, some 400 million years ago, to the present day. An interactive topographic map illustrates how ancient lakes gradually sculpted the island’s bedrock. Text, artwork, and images feature centuries of visitor narratives, artistic expression, photographs, and scientific discovery. Guests are invited to pause and indulge their sense of wonder as a living legacy for future generations.
The Milliken Nature Center at Arch Rock opened in May 2024. Photo courtesy of Mackinac State Historic Parks.
Wonders of Mackinac
In 2024, I was honored to author the book Wonders of Mackinac: A Natural History of Mackinac Island. The volume is part of a MSHP publication program which spans six decades, including over 100 titles. Notably, this is the most in-depth work to examine the “Wonderful Isle” from a nature-based perspective. Like exhibits at the Milliken Nature Center, this book invites each reader “to experience the island’s wild side, create lasting memories, and carry them with you, wherever you roam.”
Interweaving cultural and natural history, chapters explore wonders of stone, water, plants, and animal life. Each section examines how people discovered, defined, and interacted with the island’s natural world through time. A comprehensive appendix, “Botanical Study at Mackinac,” highlights the work of thirty-seven amateur and professional botanists who collected and preserved island plant life over two centuries.
Published in 2024, Wonders of Mackinac: A Natural History of Mackinac Island presents the story of the “Wonderful Isle” from a nature-based perspective. Photo by Kyle Bagnall.
Milliken Nature Center exhibits feature natural and cultural history of Mackinac Island’s many geological wonders. Photo by Kyle Bagnall.
Mackinac National Park Sesquicentennial
In 2025, Mackinac State Historic Parks will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mackinac National Park. Our staff is planning special events and programs, exhibit and facility upgrades, and new publications to help commemorate the notable occasion. A documentary film is also in production which features the short-lived and relatively unknown story of America’s second national park. While some things have changed over the past century-and-a-half, familiar sights, sounds, and natural wonders would certainly greet a time-travelling tourist from the Victorian age.
A Wonderful Legacy
I hope the story of Mackinac Island, the “Wonderful Isle,” provides inspiring examples for all 21st century interpreters. People need wonders of nature now more than ever, especially as the headlong rush towards virtual reality threatens to weaken our ties to living things. As a band of nature-loving storytellers, I believe it’s our joyful duty to reveal wonder everywhere, facilitating natural connections at every turn.
Lest we find ourselves overly lamenting our modern times, I’ll leave you with a few words from a letter to the Detroit Daily Advertiser, dated July 5, 1838. Nearly 200 years ago, an unnamed author wrote:
“I wish some of our friends, those not irretrievably tied to the car of artificial life … might now and then break away from the charmed circle and visit this Island of the North … If there be any restorative to over wrought morbid sensibility – to the lassitude which sometimes creeps over the most nervous minds, it is a few weeks of genuine rustication like this.
Wander through pathless woods – lose yourselves amid tangled cedars, maples, and wildest ever-green – drag yourself up steep precipices by friendly briers and wild vines. Sweep around the island in a bark canoe and paddle it yourself – look from the shaded side of the bark on four fathoms water into the crystal depths below, and see the glorious world there – take in the heavens and the rocks, and green trees, the grassy summits, the quiet glades, the cool springs bubbling from dark caverns – the white pebbles and the transparent waters, and thank your Maker for faculties to enjoy these sights; that dreamy abstractions have not refined you out of a sense of their glorious freshness.”
