This is a postcard of the Old Fort on Mackinac Island. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

MACKINAC ISLAND — In 1872 Yellowstone was established as the first National Park. Many people will tell you that the second national park, Yosemite, was designated in 1890, 18 years later, but this overlooks the existence of Mackinac National Park, which existed from 1875 to 1895.

Mackinac Island occupies a strategic location on the Straits of Mackinac, which has been occupied in turn by Anishinaabeg, French, British and American communities. Indigenous occupation at the straits dates back to at least 1000 BCE. Beginning in the 1670s, the area became a fur trade hub between the Anishinaabeg, French voyageurs and Jesuit missionaries. The French built Fort Michilimackinac on the south side of the straits in 1715 but yielded it to the British in 1761 following the French and Indian War.

During the Revolutionary War, the British moved the fort from the mainland to the more defensible island. Following the Treaty of Paris (1783) the British finally surrendered the fort to America in 1796. The British briefly regained control of the fort for a few years during the War of 1812 before being returned to American hands.

In the early 1800s, the island saw a decline as fur trading gave way to commercial fishing but being on the shipping path of the Great Lakes kept it alive. Following the US Civil War, tourists started to visit the Great Lakes including Mackinac Island.

In 1874, one of the US Senators from Michigan, Thomas W. Ferry, introduced a bill to designate the island as a National Park. Ferry was a native of Mackinac Island, as his parents ran the island’s mission school.

He was concerned that overdevelopment would ruin the island’s scenery, history and slow-paced lifestyle. Senate Bill 28 which “set aside a certain portion of the island of Mackinaw and the straits of Mackinaw, within the State of Michigan as a national park under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of War…” was introduced December 2, 1874.

Ferry stated “My purpose…as the bill expresses is to set aside as a National Park, and to dedicate to public use…to guard against the island’s natural curiosities and beauty being lessened or destroyed by the hands of wanton despoilers…We owe it to ourselves and to the future to grasp and fix in some form to hand down to posterity, all such points…”

The bill passed on March 3, 1875, and was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on April 15 that year, making Mackinac Island the United States’ second national park. The conversion was relatively easy and cheap, as almost half of the island was already federal property and the park itself was small. The national park covered 821 acres while the fort retained 103 acres; the remainder of the island was privately owned.

Due to concerns about the park being a drain on the federal budget, the bill required that Fort Mackinac remain an active military facility. Despite the War Department’s reluctance to become a supervisor of a National Park, their administration allowed soldiers from the garrison to be used for the requisite operation and policing of the park.

Eventually under Secretary of War Robert Lincoln (the president’s oldest son) who served under James Garfield and Chester Arthur, park land was surveyed and leased to individuals for the building of summer cottages, with the rents being used to support the park and its improvement works.

By 1894, the cost to maintain Fort Mackinac was estimated to be between $40,000 and $50,000 annually. The annual lease was $25 per residence lot and $15 per stable lot. The total collected in 1893 was $1,085 with “all of it expended on landscape work, printing, patrolling, and clerical labor.” It was estimated that the “cottages” erected on the leased land cost $20,000+ with an aggregate investment of $1 million.

Many felt that the park had become a summer resort for the wealthy, instead of a park for the people as intended. They argued that the government should not be bound to the maintenance of the park simply for the benefit of the rich.

Most federal troops were removed in 1894 as cost-saving measure. Following a petition from Michigan Governor, John T. Rich, on September 16, 1895, the last soldiers formally transferred Fort Mackinac and the Mackinac National Park to the state while they departed for Fort Brady at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The island became Michigan’s first State Park and reportedly was the first state-operated park in the county to be officially titled a “state park.”

The Michigan legislature created the Mackinac Island Park Commission to oversee the administrative and operational aspects of the park. Senator Ferry was the first Chairperson of the commission from 1895-1896. Peter White, of local fame, served as a commissioner from the park’s transfer to state authority in 1895. He took over as chairperson in 1897 and continued until his death in 1908.

The park was established on the condition that it remain a state park, or it would revert to the United States. This restriction caused a problem in the 1960s when the City of Mackinac Island proposed to lease land from the park to expand the airport. The lease to the city was ruled a non-park use but the park, on its own, expanded and continues to run the airport.

Mackinac Island State Park is operated as a public preserve and is open year-round.  Its beautiful scenery, historic structures, and slow-paced character (private autos are banned) make it popular with visitors from all over America.  The park recorded its 20 millionth visitor in 2009.

2025 celebrates the 150th anniversary of the creation of Mackinac National Park and the state park will be participating in the United States Semiquincentennial, America250, the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Stay tuned for upcoming events.