Hotels in Mackinac Island, Michigan

A little about Mackinac Island...

Mackinac Island is a city located on Mackinac Island and Round Island in Mackinac County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total year-round population of 523, although there are thousands more during the summer tourist season. From 1818 to 1882 the city was the county seat of Michilimackinac (later Mackinac) county.

A unique ordinance prohibits the use of any motorized vehicles on the island. The means of travel are basically foot, bicycle, and horseback. Certain enumerated exceptions include emergency vehicles, electric wheelchairs for persons with disabilities, snowmobiles in winter, and golf carts for course use only.

Mackinac Island is home to the Grand Hotel where the 1980 movie "Somewhere in Time" staring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour was filmed. That film was a rare exception in which they allowed motorized vehicles to be driven on the island.

Mackinac Island is the destination of the annual Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race sponsored by the Bayview Yacht Club of Detroit, Michigan.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.6 square miles (14.5 km²), of which, 4.4 square miles (11.3 km²) of it is land and 1.2 square miles (3.2 km²) of it (21.86%) is water. Interestingly, the City of Mackinac Island not only exists on the island of the same name, but also takes in the entirety of nearby Round Island (Michigan), situated in the Straits of Mackinac immediately to the south. Round Island is currently uninhabited and is owned by the U.S. Forest Service in its entirety, and is managed as part of the Hiawatha National Forest.

The Michigan Legislature created the City of Mackinac Island in 1899 via L.A. 437 of 1899 as a "special charter city." At that time, all of nearby Round Island was included in the corporate limits, although for reasons not currently clear. While all of Mackinac Island, the landform, is located within the corporate limits of the City of Mackinac Island, 82 percent of the island's landmass is owned by the State of Michigan and managed by the Mackinac Island State Park Commission (MISPC), so that the City itself has direct jurisdiction over only 18 percent of the island, the remainder being under direct control of the Commission. The City and the Commission do, however, work together on the many issues affecting both the City and the State Park, such as the longtime ban on most motorized vehicles on the island.