An eastside walk to Mission Point

Old Mission Church. Built in 1829, it's Michigan's oldest standing church building.

East of Marquette Park, Main Street (formerly known as Huron Street) takes on a leafier, calmer, more residential character. It's a half-mile walk from Marquette Park to Mission Point, which offers a good view of any passing freighters and refreshments at the Euro Cafe at Mission Point Resort. Walkers pass several of Mackinac's older summer hotels and two important historic churches, Ste. Anne's (a parish going back to Colonial Michilimackinac, now with its own museum) and the Protestant Mission Church (the state's oldest church building). Add a detour to the Butterfly House and a hike up the stairs to the elaborate East Bluff cottages, and you've really had some exercise.
♦ RICHARD and JANE MANOOGIAN ART MUSEUM. The museum in this very old house opened in 2010. The Manoogians of Masco Industries and faucets are among the leading art collectors in this country. They are ongoing benefactors of Mackinac projects. Art and decorative arts here, from their collection and the Mackinac State Historic Parks, are exclusively focused on Mackinac Island and inspired by it. Here are paintings, glass, china, and photography. Having a climate-controlled museum means the park can display far more of its collections. Next to Marquette Park. (906) 847-3328. Open early May into late Oct. Summer hours: 10-5:30. Closes at 4 into mid June, after late Aug. $5/adult, $3.50 for children 5-17 or part of Triple Pass. Handicap access: take sidewalk up to accessible rear entrance.

♦ INDIAN DORMITORY. Set back next to Marquette Park, the two-story "house" with a high foundation was built in 1838 to house the headquarters for the American Indian Agency. Native Americans came here from the Upper Great Lakes to get their annuity payments. Mackinac State Historic Parks have closed the building while new exhibits are being prepared to deal more accurately with the controversial Henry Schoolcraft and the treatment of Upper Great Lakes Native Americans in the 19th century.

♦ MARINA AREA. Tucked behind Bay View at Mackinac B&B are three places it's good to know about. Take the side walkway back to them. J. L. BEANERY coffee and ice cream shop with a soup and sandwich menu is friendly, popularly priced, a great family spot, and right on the water. Three big windows let you sit and look out into the marina. (The marina area, normally laid-back, is the scene of great celebration when the sailboats come in at the finish of the two big Great Lakes races, Port Huron to Mackinac and Chicago to Mackinac.)

♦ MACKINAC OUTFITTER & MARINE. (847-6100), a boaters' hangout and information station, packs a lot into a little space.

Harbour View Inn.

♦ HARBOUR VIEW INN. The two-story porch with Ionic columns dates from the 1920s, covering the older house built by the wealthy fur trader Magdelaine La Framboise (1779-1846). Her unusual life spanned many historical eras, and her elegant house here was a landmark and salon where all sorts of visitors, native and foreign, were entertained. Alexis De Tocqueville stopped here on his famous American tour. (Proud of her Odawa ancestry, Madame Magdelaine La Framboise wore traditional native clothing at public events.) Her father, a French-Canadian fur trader, was killed when she was a baby, and her mother, an Odawa woman, went back to her family on the Grand River near Grand Haven. Magdelaine married another fur trader and helped him negotiate with Native Americans, bartering trade goods for furs in winters on the Grand, selling furs to buyers on Mackinac Island in summers. He was killed by an Indian whom he had earlier angered by not giving him liquor. Madame La Framboise was then 27. She continued as an independent trader for 14 years before retiring here. On Mackinac she donated the land where Ste. Anne's now stands. She helped start the Catholic school and, having learned to read and write late in life, taught at it. Her tombstone is in Ste. Anne's churchyard. There's a chapter on Magdelaine La Framboise in the interesting anthology, Historic Women of Michigan.
    Portions of her original house were uncovered by Petoskey architect Rick Neumann when the historic home was purchased and renovated by history-minded Cheboygan physician Michael Bacon and his wife, Jane. (They also added new wings for the upscale inn.) A cutaway view of the exterior wall is exposed in the lobby. On Main Street next to Ste. Anne's. (906) 847-0101.

♦ Ste. ANNE'S CATHOLIC CHURCH. This fascinating church requires its own point of interest page.

John Britt

♦ MACKINAC ISLAND BUTTERFLY HOUSE. Butterfly houses have a staple of resort educational amusements. This one, the island's first, is in a charming old greenhouse. It also has an insectarium, now with live giant insects like the giant leaf beetle from Malaysia (Bigger than your hand! Resemble tree limbs!), huge prying mantises, and a walking leaf.
   Butterflies are more active when it's bright and warm, so plan a visit for a sunny day. (An admission ticket is good for repeat visits on your island stay.) The insect and nature gift shop has many bright, appealing books for kids.
The Mackinac Island Butterfly House began partly as a mission of its founder, the late Doug Beardsley. His career change was forced by cancer. Doug capitalized on the butterfly's natural charm to get an ecological message across. "The butterfly is spokesman for the insect world," he liked to say. "People may wonder why there aren't as many as there used to be. Well, today you can buy enough chemicals at the hardware store to kill the whole town's insects. If you interrupt the food chain by eliminating the insect biomass, you've got trouble. We've got to get away from the mindset that everything ought to be perfect, without insects on it." Behind Ste. Anne's (on the way to Mission Point) on McGulpin Street. (906) 847-3972. Butterfly house website. Open from early May into mid to late Oct, daily from 10 to 6. From Mem. to Labor Day open til 7. Admission $8.50 for ages 12 and up, $4 ages 4-11, under 4 free. Wheelchair-accessible.

♦ MISSION CHURCH. Michigan's oldest standing church building and the first Protestant mission at the Straits, Mission Church is now owned by Mackinac State Historic Parks. Like all Mackinac churches, it is a popular place for weddings. Willliam Montague Ferry came to Mackinac as a Presbyterian missionary just four years out of Union College, in 1821. "His plan was to convert the Native population," according to the state historic preservation office. In return for protection from the fort, he agreed to provide religious instruction to soldiers. He and his wife ran a boarding school for American, French-Canadian, and mixed-blood or me tis students. Influential friends to his cause and members of the church he established here were Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Indian Agent and collector and embellisher of native legends, and Robert Stuart, head of the American Fur Company Mackinac office. Doubtless their aim was to counteract the longstanding influence of Catholicism, but they didn't have much success in converting their pupils.
    "Built in 1829 by local residents, [Mission Church] is Michigan's best example of New England Colonial church style," states Mackinac State Historic Parks' wedding information section. The church building's "simple and austere interior is characteristic of the Calvinist religion the young missionaries brought to the new frontier. Fur traders Robert Stuart, Henry Schoolcraft, and their wives, as well as soldiers and colorfully clad Native Americans, shared the fiery sermons of the Reverend William Ferry, best known of the early ministers." Donations from Mackinac summer people have restored its interior.
    After 12 hard years at Mackinac, according to a biography in all likelihood written by his son Thomas White Ferry, William Montague Ferry's health failed and "he was obliged to seek a different employment." In 1834 he and Robert Stuart went in with others to purchase a tract of untouched timberland at the mouth of the Grand River, Michigan's biggest watershed. It was a prime site for a town, for lumber mills and related industries, and for shipping. That town became Grand Haven, and Ferry and Stuart are regarded there as its founders. Ferry also platted Ferrysburg. He "was one of the first to perceive the future value of the immense pine forests of Michigan," that same biography states - and it's true. The pineries of the north woods began just to the north of Grand Haven, and included much of the Grand's watershed.
    Ferry died in 1867 a very wealthy man - an example of how ordinary young Yankees without special wealth who pioneered settlement of an area like Michigan for American business and government could make great connections and become very rich by saving a bit of money aft first and getting in on the action early. One son, William Montague Ferry, Jr., followed in his father's footsteps as lumberman and developer, naming Montague on White Lake north of Muskegon in honor of his father. Another son, Thomas White Ferry, became a Michigan legislator at the age of 23, was a Republican from almost the party's very start, and served as an influential U.S. senator from 1871 to 1883. As senator, Thomas Ferry was responsible for Congressional action in 1875 making Mackinac Island the second national park - nicely continuing the fort as a sightseeing attraction staffed by the army when it served no useful purpose, and preserving the island's open space for the enjoyment of visitors and summer people. (These Ferrys do not seem to be closely related to Dexter Mason Ferry, another York State Yankee and the founder of Ferry-Morse Seed, once in Detroit.) Open from early/mid June into late August, noon to 4. Admission included with fort ticket or Market Street historic homes ticket. Through August 21, noon to 4. Free admission. Not wheelchair accessible.

♦ MISSION POINT RESORT. The soaring log lobby and the eight-story Tower Museum are worth a visit for their architecture, history displays, and spectacular view of the island. The resort started out as Mackinac College, founded by Moral Rearmament as a four-year college. It aimed to train future leaders to think globally in pursuing its goals of reenergizing the spiritual and moral tone of society in general. (Mackinac College was started by a U.S. Lutheran minister in Oxford, Frank Buchman, depressed about the "lost generation" and shallow, commercial values following World War I.)
   MRA's "Up with People" chorus toured college campuses in the early 1960s, hoping to inspire. They confused some, who wondered if they were linked with John Birch Society right-wing hyper-patriotism. (They weren't.) The college went bankrupt after graduating one class and closed in 1970. The 500-seat theater, dorms, and classrooms remained. Mission Point has knit them together with a spectacular log kiva, the resort's main lobby.
   The theater shows movies at 9 p.m. Mondays. Mackinac College had its own sound stage and movie production studio, which was a thrilling discovery for the technical crew filming Somewhere in Time on the island. The cast and crew stayed here (before Mission Point Resort happened) while filming many scenes at the Grand Hotel.
   The moderately priced Lakeside Market to the right of the lobby and down at ground level, overlooking Lake Huron, is a fine place for a snack or light lunch and lingering on the terrace. The Adirondack chairs are wonderful for relaxing and, possibly, watching passing boats and freighters. See Mission Point Resort under lodgings for the resort's interesting background as a college founded by Moral Rearmament, started in the 1920s by a Lutheran minister.

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