Looking Back
Compiled by Ryan Schlehuber

A view of Mackinac Island's downtown from the East Bluff in a 1907 postcard. (Postcard courtesy of Bob Cole)

115 Years Ago

The St. Ignace News

Saturday, August 29, 1891

The little Gazelle gave an excursion to the Island Tuesday evening.

Dr. Campbell of St. Ignace made a professional visit to the Island on Tuesday.

90 Years Ago

The St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, August 31, 1916

Mackinac's prosecuting attorney, Prentiss M. Brown, is being brought into much prominence through a dispatch sent out from Mackinac Island and which is being copied generally by the state press. It all came about from the prosecutor's stand taken in connection with the closing of the saloon bars on Sunday, something that had never been heard of before since the Island came into prominence as a summer resort and the mecca of thousands of tourists each year. Brown is not a radical, but when complaints reached him that the law was being disobeyed he simply did his duty as he saw it and at once issued an ultimatum that the bars must observe the state law.

It is said that the dealers protested against this, stating that they had the authority of the governor to keep open. Then Brown went to the governor and put it up to him, and was told to go back home and enforce the law. And that was the beginning of the end of the Sunday open bar on the Island and for which action Brown is being complimented in all quarters for his determined stand.

Vacation days are nearly ended as public schools will re-open next Tuesday morning.

The principal event of interest in the European war this week was the entry of Romania in the contest on the side of the Allies. Greece is also expected to throw her strength to the Entente.

50 Years Ago

The Republican-News &

St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, August 30, 1956

Thomas W. Ferry school on Mackinac Island will open the new school year on Tuesday morning, September 4, at 10 o'clock. There will be sessions only in the morning.

Mackinac County's school children, number 3,064, will answer school bells in the outcounty area on Tuesday, September 4. Record school enrollments are likely in all but three districts where small losses are shown. These are St. Ignace, Bois Blanc, and Newton townships.

The Labor Day rush for the final summer vacation period of 1956 will bring nearly 29,000 cars to cross the Straits of Mackinac.

Activities for the Labor Day weekend are the annual amateur show on Sunday night at Grand Hotel. The North and South American have their annual show here each year. Tickets can be purchased at Grand Hotel and the public is invited to this annual show.

35 Years Ago The Republican-News & St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, September 2, 1971 Looking

Proclaimed as the "World's Greatest Walking Event," the annual Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Walk started in 1958 with 65 persons participating.

The Black Gown Tree weekend will be held September 3, 4, and 5. The free pageant, presented at the spot where Father Marquette landed in 1671 to found his home mission, depicts his work among the Indians, his departure with Joliet to explore the Mississippi, and the return of his bones to the present, final resting place.

Having studied all the records of the late Father Jacker, Dr. Stone has high hopes of unearthing some remnants of the wall from the original mission in St. Ignace, established in 1671 by Father Marquette. After only a day and a half of digging, bottles, glass, and ceramics dating from about 1870-80 have been unearthed.

Rep. Dennis Cawthorne of Lansing spent the weekend with Island friends.

10 Years Ago Mackinac Island Town Crier

August 31 to September 6, 1996 The Mackinac Island State Park Commission rejected a proposed plan to extend the Island's airport runaway 800 feet, reaffirming its historical intent to limit expansion there and calming the fears of Island residents, who had fought the plan.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Mackinac Island Town Crier is seeking original prints or reprints of old photographs depicting areas in the Eastern Upper Peninsula to be scanned into its archives and for the Looking Back column. Photographs to be loaned or donated to the Michilimackinac Historical Society can also be dropped off at The St. Ignace News.