According to local lore, when a car backfired in 1898, scaring horses nearby, village authorities banned internal combustion engines, a move that was extended to the rest of the island two years later. Ever since, locals have leaned into this tranquil, once-upon-a-time way of life.
More than a century later, some 600 horses keep things running here every summer, when roughly 1.2 million people board a 20-minute ferry from Mackinaw City or St Ignace on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and descend on the small village (also called Mackinac Island) on the island’s southern tip. There, visitors shop for the village’s famous fudge, explore its 70 miles of trails and soak up the clip-clopping sounds of a simpler time. In autumn, some 300 of these seasonal four-legged employees start heading back to the mainland, just as they do every year, to signal the end of the tourist season and the coming of winter.
“Horses are used in everything from garbage removal to FedEx deliveries,” says Morse, who has been selling scrimshaw, art, jewellery and other merchandise after first visiting as a college student in 1990. “That’s how our lifestyle has been; that’s how our pace is.”
“Part of us just like the tradition that we get around by bike, or we walk or take the horse taxi,” Morse adds.
