Car-free on Mackinac Island
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If you’re looking for a locale with a little more horsepower, Michigan’s Mackinac Island has been car-free since internal combustion engines were banned in its village in 1898. The only way to get around the small island in Lake Huron is by walking, biking, or horse-drawn carriage.
Only about 600 people live there year-round, but ~1.2 million tourists descend on the 4.35-square-mile island each year (mostly by ferry), and roughly 300 workhorses are brought in during the summer to accommodate the influx. Not only are the horses part of a 24-hour summer taxi service, but they also pull garbage buggies and help deliver mail.
The small island gets its name from the indigenous people who used the island’s ideal location for fishing—long before it became a hub for rich Midwesterners in the 19th century. There are burial grounds on the island dating back some 3,000 years. The Anishinaabek people called the island Michilimackinac, or “place of the great turtle,” because its lush forests reminded them of a giant turtle popping out of the lake.
