Mules on Mackinac, Part 2: Ride, Pack, or Pull

The United States Government had mules, primarily in the 19th century, on Mackinac Island. During the decades from 1860 to the 1890s, most forts across the nations utilized these animals for heavy or tedious work. The mules that were on Mackinac at the time more than likely were harnessed to haul water and help move timber or stone.

To recap, a mule is actually a hybrid equine, a cross between a horse and an ass. They’re long-lived, sure-footed, and tough-skinned. Mules tend to work best with other mules, or alone. Their coats are often coarse and shaggy, the ears are long, and their tails thin. They do, however, have a great many devotees.

This 1880 photograph of workers and mules was taken in the Government Pasture on Mackinac Island, now Grand Hotel’s Golf Course.

In the 1930s, the Civil Conservation Corps resided for five summers on Mackinac Island (from 1933 to 1938). It was the C.C.C. that was responsible for building the scout barracks and taking on many improvements in the internal core of Mackinac, such as the state roads and bridle paths. During this Depression era, dozens of men of all ages were camped at makeshift barracks out on the Early farm, by Wawashkamo Golf Course. A wonderful image of two C.C.C. officers riding mules with other workers on a wagon is in a private collection at the Bentley Library. The two mules appear to be of a tall size (15 to 15.3 hands).

The Mackinac Island Carriage Tours experimented with mules for a few seasons. Islander Dean Gillespie actually drove a pair of them on his tour buggy. Using mules for Carriage Tours was a practical idea. Mules have a durable nature and are easier to keep than horses. But, the situation for them and Mackinac never really seemed to work out with Carriage Tours. At one point, they also were utilized by Carriage Tours for draying, but soon the idea wore off and the mules left the Island.

My first real encounter with mules on Mackinac was in the 1970s, when my father and I purchased “the old Schywnn place” on the northeast shore of the Island. Our first dray ride to the cottage was on a windy, cold, overcast June day in 1977. There, at the Arnold Transit dock, Charlie Pearson and his dray, pulled by a pair of small mules, met us. Charlie and his team were part of a soon-to-be dying breed of independent drivers and haulers that had small dray lines on Mackinac, before the days of the Service Company. Charlie kept his mules and dray down at the Mission. The shore road seemed to go on forever as they walked along M-185. We were sitting on top of our heaps of items, boxes of foodstuffs, books, lawn mowers, clothes, and bicycles. One thing I will always remember is when we reached Lone Lake, both of those mules started to bray, and I was suddenly very apprehensive and more than a little bit scared. My father just rolled his eyes. Charlie paid no attention to me, or the noise. Those mules continued to vocalize all the way to Scott’s Cave Road, as it dawned on them they were really out of town and happy to be so. When we got to the forsaken cottage and unloaded, Charlie’s two mules buried their muzzles into the foot-high grass and started chomping. Occasionally, they would stop eating and bray out to the lake and into the wind. Mules are loud.

Perhaps the best known mule of Mackinac was one owned by Marvin Hubbard. Mr. Hubbard, who has been employed by Carriage Tours for several decades, kept his own mule, Tinkerbelle, on Mackinac for many summer seasons. While out riding, I would often encounter Marvin riding his mule, enjoying the evening after work. Most of the time I would see Marvin off on one of the trails from Harrisonville. Sometimes, when I was working late in town, I would watch Marvin and Tinkerbelle taking an easy amble along Main Street and going up Cadotte Avenue. It was certainly a different twist for the vacationing families in town, or the cocktail party set to view from the east end of the porch of Grand Hotel, a man out “riding his mule.”

Frequently, during lilac time on Mackinac, we have a great many visiting horses, and a few saddle mules have been spotted in the parades. These days many mules have been crossed with Peruvian Paso Finos and Tennessee Walkers, the result being gated mules that have become quite popular. There are serious riding mule breeding farms as close as Wolverine. Mules have also been crossed with drafts, mostly Belgians, and one broke the record books for being 18 hands high.

These days a good mule can cost you anywhere from $2,000 to upwards of $6,000. People who own them swear by them and are loyal to these distinctive equines. In 1994 the North American Saddle Mule Association was formed. The group hasn’t made it to Mackinac yet, but, hey, you never know.

Candice Dunnigan is an active member of the American Equestrian Association, the Waterloo Hunt, and the Mackinac Island Horsemen’s Association. Seasonally she resides at Donnybrook and Easterly Cottage.

(Photograph courtesy of Mackinac State Historic Parks)