Mackinac Island, Transportation, and the Grand Hotel PLUS Giveaway!

By Carrie Fancett Pagels
 
How Transportation Affected Mackinac Island & Northern Michigan Resorts

When I was researching Mackinac Island’s resorts, specifically the Grand Hotel, I was surprised to learn that the railroad industry very much influenced the creation of this glorious icon of Northern Michigan. My husband and I attended at lecture at the hotel by Bob Tagatz, the Grand Hotel Historian in which he explained how the railroad barons of the day were laying down tracks throughout the state and they worked with the shipping magnates, too, to develop a location where people would want to travel to.


Rates today to stay at the Grand Hotel are quite steep (unless you get in on

some of their discounted rates at special times of the year, which thankfully we’ve obtained for our upcoming July 11th and 12th stay). During the late 1800s, the rates were quite modest. I believe Mr. Tagatz quoted a rate in the 1890s of $1 a night for the cheapest rooms but the Grand Hotel website (http://www.grandhotel.com/about-grand-hotel/our-story/) shows $3 to $5 a night for typical rooms But you first had to get to the island! And that took some doing! However, investors were making sure that Americans could reach the Northern Michigan resorts which boomed at the turn of the century.

Railroads were making inroads all across America during this exciting time period. In Michigan, there were many railroads built to haul out their shipments of “White Gold” – Michigan’s White Pines, which had been prevalent but being logged out by the turn of the century. There were even ferries which took railroad cars across the Straits of Mackinac. Not only were passenger trains burgeoning but the steam ships that traversed the Great Lakes were busy as well. Some travelers came in covered wagons, like my great-grandparents purportedly did and had to travel up through Wisconsin to reach Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Immigrants were coming into Michigan at a fast clip, too. It wasn’t Trains, Planes, and Automobiles back then – it was Trains, Ships, and Horse-drawn wagons!


Back in the 1890s, you weren’t going to be driving up the interstate to get to the island. You’d need to take one of the railroads and/or a steamship up to the beautiful Straits of Mackinac. So that’s where your travel money was spent. I didn’t belabor this point in my novel, but Captain Robert Swaine, my heroine’s uncle, is an investor and also owns a shipping line and one of the other mysterious characters in the story has become one of the wealthiest women in America by her investments in transportation and in the steel industry which made the ships and trains! If you’ve ever traveled up I-75 in Michigan, to get to the Straits of Mackinac, I wonder if you’ve appreciated the ease with which you could make this travel!


Some good books which offer detail about the Grand Hotel and about transportation in general are America’s Summer Place Grand Hotel, History text by James A. Crutchfield and Photography by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Robin Hood and Randall K. Powers (Grandin Hood Publishers and Grand Hotel, 2012) and Wet Britches and Muddy Boots: A History of Travel in Victorian America by John H. White, Jr. (Indiana University Press, 2013).










Giveaway: A copy of My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island: Maude’s Mooring (Barbour, July 2017) Have you given any thought to what it would have taken you to get to one of your travel destinations if it was 1895? 


About Carrie:

Bio – Carrie Fancett Pagels, Ph.D.

ECPA-bestselling author Carrie Fancett Pagels, Ph.D., is the award-winning author of a dozen Christian historical romances. Twenty-five years as a psychologist didn't "cure" her overactive imagination! A self-professed “history geek,” she resides with her family in the Historic Triangle of Virginia but grew up as a “Yooper.” Carrie loves to read, bake, bead, and travel – but not all at the same time! 
You can connect with her at www.CarrieFancettPagels.com.

Website: www.carriefancettpagels.com 
Blogs: Overcoming With God and Colonial Quills Facebook Author Page Facebook Personal Page Twitter Pinterest goodreads 
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-fancett-pagels-09303538?trk=hp-identity-photo 
Amazon author page 



Links to purchase:
Links to purchase My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island: Maude’s Mooring (Barbour Publishing, July 2017) 
Barbour Publishing http://www.barbourbooks.com/product/My-Heart-Belongs-on-Mackinac-Island,14733.aspx?Tab=Books&sj=0 
Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-heart-belongs-on-mackinac-island-carrie-fancett-pagels/1125051921?ean=9781683220886 
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/My-Heart-Belongs-Mackinac-Island/dp/1683220889/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1481305286&sr=8-16&keywords=fancett 
CBD https://www.christianbook.com/heart-belongs-mackinac-island-maudes-mooring/carrie-pagels/9781683220886/pd/220886?product_redirect=1&Ntt=220886&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP 
Book Depository http://www.bookdepository.com/My-Heart-Belongs-on-Mackinac-Island-Carrie-Fancett-Pagels/9781683220886?ref=grid-view
Target http://www.target.com/p/my-heart-belongs-on-mackinac-island-maude-s-mooring-paperback-carrie-fancett-pagels/-/A-52027933