Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: mackinaw city

Colonial Michillimackinac in Mackinaw City, at the tip of Michigan's mitten. The complex, part of a state park, is a reconstructed French trading village (or fort); it's at the foot of the Mackinac Straits Bridge. Yeah, spelling Mackinac can be confusing. So can the pronunciation: Say Mackinaw.

But lots of other folks did....

@ Colonial Michillimackinac State Park, Mackinaw City.

Mackinaw City, right next to The Bridge.

Despite appearances, this stockade was never intended as a fortress. Michillimackinac was a fur trading post and remote French (British, after 1763) settlement on the Straits of Mackinac. When the folks living here decided they needed security, they moved to the more serious fortress on Mackinac Island. But the place was occasionally attacked, and was once overrun during Pontiac's Rebellion. Colonial Michillimackinac is a Michigan State Park. Everything that looks like a building in the park is a reconstruction, with only two or three minor exceptions. They've been working on this since 1959, and I've been visiting on an occasional basis since 1961. Yesterday was our first stop in over a decade. Our impression is that things have greatly improved. We spent most of the afternoon walking the place and checking out the exhibits. Oh, yes. That Bridge. There's only one bridge . Its name is Mackinac, and its anchorage is beside the old fort.

Now a museum, by Mackinaw City's old railroad ferry dock. Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped to pay our respects to this wonderful old lady . A fine tour; highly recommended. WAGB-83 was built during WW II, launched in 1944, and spent over six decades breaking ice and doing other necessary chores, mostly in or near the Straits of Mackinac. Her main job was extending the Great Lakes shipping season, so ore could make its way to the steel mills around Pittsburgh and Gary. She's been replaced by a very different icebreaking ship with the same name, working out of Cheboygan.

Fort Michilimackinac (or Colonial Michilimackinac), Mackinaw City, on the Mackinac Straits.