Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar
I’ve always said that if I didn’t live in Marquette, I would want to live on Mackinac Island. Despite numerous trips to this beautiful isle, I’ve never stayed a night on the island, much less lived there year-round, so I’ve always been curious what it would be like. Tom Chambers, a lifelong resident—seventy-one summers and fifty-one winters spent on the island—has largely fulfilled that curiosity for me with his new book, Mackinac Island: Holidays, Tourists and Trivia, which is a follow-up to his previous book, Memories of a Mackinac Island Native. I admit I have not yet read his first book, but this second book has plenty to intrigue the reader.
First, let me state this book is not a history of Mackinac Island, and it is not a tour guide of the island. If you’ve never been to Mackinac Island, I’m not sure you would appreciate it. If you’ve visited, you will find much of interest, and if you’ve lived there, especially long-term, I think you will most enjoy it since many of the places Chambers mentions I did not know about, and the island residents he mentions I’ve never met.
In any case, the book is a great chronicle of life on the island from the 1950s to the present. Chambers shares many fond memories of the different jobs he’s had on the island, the different people he’s known, and his hilarious and sometimes annoying run-ins with the tourists.
What I most appreciated about the book was how it provides a look at how much the island has changed over time, largely due to the tourist trade. Chambers recalls a time when tourists rarely came before Memorial Day and they all left by Labor Day. As the years have passed and the tourist numbers have grown, the months when the island is busy have expanded. This is largely due to the advent of social media, which has allowed advertising of special events on the island worldwide. Today, it is not uncommon for tourists to come as early as April, and they often arrive for special celebrations at Halloween and as late as New Year’s Eve. Climate change has also played a role in expanded tourism—Chambers recalls how in earlier decades for about nine out of ten years, the ice at the Mackinac Straits would be thick enough to travel across from the island to the mainland, especially to the St. Ignace side. Today, that has changed to maybe two years per decade. The advent of faster ferries and ice cutter boats has also allowed people to visit for longer periods.
One of the most fascinating chapters for me was about the fudge. The island has a plethora of fudge businesses and Chambers provides a history of all of them, beginning with Murdick’s, which began in 1889 on the island. He describes how successive fudge businesses began and fudge went from three standard flavors to ten or more. Some of the fudge businesses have even expanded to the mainland, which Chambers mentions, though he omits that one of them—I think it was Murdick’s—even had a shop in downtown Marquette for a short time about 1985. I recall buying fudge there as a teenager.
As the book’s subtitle promises, Chambers also discusses holidays on the island, many of which seem similar to holidays anywhere else, but the summer holidays, of course, are far busier on the island, and the winter ones quieter. Perhaps the most special holiday was Christmas before the 1970s when people used horse-drawn sleighs on the island before snowmobiles were allowed.
The S.S. South American brought tourists from Chicago, Detroit, and Duluth from 1914 until its retirement in 1967. Photo by Charles Durfina. Used with permission.
Among the trivia that interested me was learning that automobiles were banned on the island in 1898. I knew it was early on, but I didn’t know it was that soon in the automobile’s history. I also appreciated the inside look at many aspects of island life. For example, Chambers explains that everything on the island is so expensive because of the freight charges, which require barge/ferry and horse-drawn carriage transportation.
No book on Mackinac Island would be complete without discussing tourism. With increased months to visit the island and wider advertising, the island today attracts about 15,000 people a day during its summer peak. Even the COVID-19 pandemic did not slow the traffic down much—people just wore face masks. Sadly, many tourists are clueless about the island when they first visit; that leads to some mishaps such as people bringing their dogs without knowing how they will react to the horses they aren’t used to. Other issues are people trying to teach their five-year-olds how to bike on Main Street amid horses, carriages, and crowds of tourists. Best of all, Chambers recalls several hilarious sayings he’s overheard from tourists. The most famous one, which I’ve heard before, is, “What time does the Mackinac Bridge swing over?” I had a friend who worked on the island one summer who actually had someone ask her that. Another question my friend was asked was, “What’s that noise?” When she replied it was the foghorn, the tourist asked my friend if she could “turn it down.” I’ll let you read for yourself the rest that Chambers shares.
Overall, Mackinac Island: Holidays, Tourists and Trivia is a worthy addition to Mackinac Island history and lore. I am sure future generations will be grateful to Chambers for documenting his memories, and current readers will enjoy reminiscing about their own experiences on the island. Best of all, this book will prepare readers to appreciate their future visits to magical Mackinac Island even more.
Mackinac Island: Holidays, Tourists and Trivia
By Tom Chambers
ISBN: 979-8-89656-057-9
Modern History Press
Release date 2025,
paperback, hardcover, eBook,
