Travel and Adventure by Various Travel Authors

By Steve Bergsman

The 1980 movie "Somewhere in Time," which starred Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, has secured a place of honor in the genre of the time-travel romance, and that sums up the film's locale, too. Mackinac Island is a small spit of rocky, wooded land in the Mackinac Strait between lower Michigan and its Upper Peninsula that itself seems like a romantic trip back in time.

The movie was panned by the critics when it was released, but it has since become a cult classic. In it a playwright visiting the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island is smitten by the visage of a woman whose portrait hangs in the hotel. Using self-hypnosis, he travels back in time to find her.

The real-life island has retained the look and feel of the turn of the century — not this one but the one of 110 years prior. It's not just that the island is still dominated by the Grand Hotel, which was constructed in 1887 and is still considered the finest hotel in Michigan, or that so many homes and buildings are from the Victorian age, or that the presence of so many fudge shops is reminiscent of bygone days. It's also the fact that since 1898 cars have been banned from Mackinac Island, and to this day there are just three modes of transportation on the island: foot power, bicycles and horse-drawn vehicles.

The island was developed as a tourist destination and second-home market during the period between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the 20th century, when America blossomed as an industrial power. It was the age of robber barons, monopolies and entrepreneurs. With more money in circulation, the middle class joined the industrial titans in the summer exodus from congested cities to bucolic locations where they built grand homes. Easterners traveled to Newport, Chicagoans to Lake Geneva and those from Detroit and other big Midwest cities to Mackinac Island. The Midwestern meat-processing kingpins, the Armour and Cudahy families, were regulars here.

The extraordinary Cudahy mansion near the western bluffs is now the Inn at Stonecliffe. The land along the western bluff behind the inn was acquired by the state park, so the popular overlook at this end of the island is open to everyone.

More than 100 years may have gone by, but Mackinac still hasn't lost its allure. Its busiest tourist year was not 1898, but 1998. To this day, summer visitations average more than 6,000 tourists daily. They come for the same reason folks did more than 100 years ago — to visit a beautiful location, get closer to nature, stay in wonderful homes and hotels, and move at a slower pace.

Mackinac consists of only 4.4 square miles, and 80 percent of that space has been designated as Mackinac Island State Park. The state park was originally the country's second national park after Yellowstone, but in 1895, during a period of cost-cutting, the national government decided not to maintain it. The state of Michigan took over the management, and Mackinac Island became Michigan's first state park.

The irony is that most visitors don't see much of the park as they spend almost their whole time in the Main Street area, where the ferries dock and the street is busy with T-shirt shops, fudge stores, restaurants, bars and all manner of commercial endeavors. Those who do leave Main Street most likely take an island tour. These are all done by horse-drawn wagons and — like everything else on the island — are accomplished at a most leisurely pace.

After climbing out of the city past the Grand Hotel, the dray eventually wanders to the eastern bluffs, which overlook not only the waters below but a natural bridge, one of three east of Mississippi.

Even with this tour, visitors still don't really get a complete sense of the island. The best bet is to rent a bike (bicycle rental shops are almost as ubiquitous as fudge stores) for a private exploration. Most tourists who rent a bike circumnavigate the island. The road is eight miles long and takes about 45 minutes to cover. To see the island even more up-close and personally, the thing to do is ride through the central highlands, where there are numerous routes of paved roads, off-road paths shared with horses and, for the particularly adventuresome, single tracks through the forests. The highest point of Mackinac Island is 325 feet above sea level.

As with all islands, there is always a bit of quirkiness. The last major battle to be fought on the island occurred during the War of 1812, when the British, who had retaken the island from U.S. troops, rebuffed a landing party of American forces. The island boasts a small veterans' cemetery, one of only a handful in the country that is allowed to keep its flag consistently at half-mast.

The main tourist attraction is Fort Mackinac. Built by the British in 1780, it remained an active military establishment until 1895. To this day, young men dressed in period uniforms regularly fire a cannonade while others, dressed like sloppy soldiers from the late 19th century, impress the crowds with their gunnery skills.

It's worthwhile (although not always possible) to tour the Grand Hotel with its Victorian decor, paintings, memorabilia, gardens and the famed veranda that at 660 feet lays claim to being the longest front porch of a hotel in the world. "Somewhere in Time" cultists know much of the movie was shot at "The Grand," and a small collection of memorabilia from the production can be found on the lower level.

Another movie that was filmed at The Grand is 1947's "This Time for Keeps," starring Esther Williams. The Grand Hotel's pool was built for the movie and is named after the swimming star. However, she never actually swam in it. After dipping her toe in the water, she declared it too cold and the swim scenes were filmed in a more tropical venue.

IF YOU GO

Getting there: I flew Delta Airlines through Detroit to Pellston Airport, where I boarded a van heading to Mackinaw City and finally a ferry to the island. Going home, I took a different route — first ferrying to St. Ignace on the Upper Peninsula and then driving over the Mackinac Bridge to the lower peninsula and on to Pellston.

Where to stay: There's a room for every budget on Mackinac Island. I stayed at the Island House, a huge Victorian structure that has been doing business for 150 years: www.theislandhouse.com.

Things to do on the water: Take a catamaran tour of the waters around the island (www.mackinawbreeze.com), or for the history-inclined, a boat tour of the Great Lakes lighthouses (www.sheplersferry.com).

Steve Bergsman is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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