There is an island that has been prohibiting cars for more than a century and continues to use horses. And it’s doing pretty good

Before entering the subject, let’s make a game: Open Google Maps, Type “Mackinac Island” And let the search engine transfer you to a small island in Lake Huron, in Michigan, USA. Then approximate and handle Street View to take a virtual walk through its streets. In their wide avenues you will see people walking, people by bicycle and people mounted in carriages thrown by horses, but what you will not find are cars. Very lucky maybe CACES some (few) of those used promptly to provide certain services.

After all Mackinac is known worldwide Therefore: have banished motor vehicles and stay, in the middle of 2025, such as the reign of horses.

In a Michigan place … Mackinac is a fantastic example of how history is full of ironies. The island known inside and outside the US for its aversion to cars is located in the middle Ford, General Motors either Chrysler. In fact Detroit, the “Motor City” It is located just 400 k, in a straight line. However, despite this influence of the industry 127 years ago the island authorities made a peculiar decision: they prohibited the use of combustion vehicles.

Petarders no, thanks. The veto was promulgated the July 6, 1898after the islanders who dedicated themselves to working with calese alerted of the “dangers” and discomfort that the new “carriages without horses.” The legend He says that the trigger (never better) was the firecracker of a vehicle that in 1898 frightened a group of horses. It is also not far -fetched to think that the chauferes They moved to shield your business in the face of engines.

A prohibition in DNA. The fact is that the rule set. After a few years It extended To the rest of the island, just 3.8 km2, and with the passing of the decades it became one of Mackinac’s great hallmarks. Little served to mark like Oldsmobile Or Ford became stronger and more only a few kilometers from there, the small island of Lake Huron remained an impregnable redoubt for the thriving automotive industry and thus has continued to be during the twentieth and twenty -first centuries, for pride of local authorities.

On their official website they remember that the M-185the road that surrounds the island, is the only US state road in which the use of motor vehicles is not allowed. “Of the more than six million kilometers of public streets in the US, there is a stretch of 13.2 kilometers in Mackinac that stands out for its uniqueness,” They need The authorities. “It could be decided that it is literally one among one million.”

There is no car? No. And yes. The authorities do not allow people to use cars as they would do any other part of the US, but that does not mean that there are certain exceptions. Mlive remember That the island has emergency vehicles, police cars, an ambulance released in 2021 and fire trucks. The State Park also has vehicles, although only uses them out of season high and preferably at first or last hour of the day.

The island has also turned a blind eye in certain cases. For example, the US secret service put a car in 1975, during a visit by President Gerald R. Ford with his wife. The vehicle was used by agents. Ford opted for a carriage pulled by horses. Another exceptional case was the filming in 1979 of ‘Somowhere in Time’a film starring Chistopher Reeve and Jane Seymour that was shot in Mackinac and had a special permission to use vehicles.

And the rest of the time? Simple. People walk, move by bike or ride in carriages thrown by horses, one of the great hallmarks of the island. It is believed that the horses arrived in Mackinac around 1780 by the British, who used them to lift the Strong Michilimackinacand the caleses were popular mostly in the nineteenth century, when the island became popular as a resting place. The first license for a carriage was issued in 1869.

The island also has a ferry that allows its 600 inhabitants Move more easily from neighbors Mackinaw City or St. Ignace. “Without horses, this place would not be what it is. It allows you Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

A destination with history. With the passing of the decades Mackinac has achieved more than becoming a small redoubt safe from the traffic and contamination of cars. It has also become a popular destination, especially during The summer months. There, in addition to their horse carriages, coasts and landscape The Anishnaabe culturea group of indigenous peoples from the region of the Great Lakes of North America.

Images | Dan Gaken (Flickr), Greg Marks (Flickr), Kate Ter Har (Flickr) and Poissantfamily (Flickr)

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