Or maybe a young dandy with a straw skimmer cocked over one eye. To be sure, Mackinac is a modern tourist place. Fudge sellers abound. So do hawkers of saltwater taffy, ice cream, burgers, cappuccino, T-shirts with funny sayings, snow globes and carved wooden seagulls. But Mackinac Island is no Disneyesque creation.
People actually live in the wonderful Victorian homes, at least part of the year.
As a result, the Mackinac fantasy of stepping into a sweeter, truer America does not seem so far-fetched. Mackinac Island had very practical beginnings as a tourist destination. Back in the 1850s, railroad builders were laying track from Chicago and Detroit up toward the top of Michigan's mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula. Steamships filled with vacationers also were cruising north on the Great Lakes. No fools, the transportation moguls came up with a clever idea.