Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Sandra Hughes Tidwell
Taken: May 15, 2023
Caption: Mackinaw, Mackinac or Michilimackinac? Marker
Additional Description: The Mackinac Straits region derives its name from a French translation of the Ojibway name for Mackinac Island; Missilimakinak, where missi (also Michi or Mishi) means great or many and Mackinac means turtle. Although it has been spelled many different ways over the years, the most common form is Michilimackinac and it means "the great turtle." With imagination, the island profile resembles a great turtle, partially submerged in the lake, with its outstretched neck and head peering off the to west. In the early 1700s, the fur trading outpost on the mainland became known as Fort Michilimackinac, and the island was abbreviated to Mackinac. The Village of Mackinaw City was incorporated in 1883 with an English spelling that suggests the more common pronunciation of Mackinac. Picture 1:Michilimackinac from Round Island by Major Francis Smith Belton, September 1817 from the collection of the Mackinac State Historic Parks. Picture: Jonathan Carver's 1767 map identifies Fort Michillimackinac.
Submitted: May 27, 2023, by Sandra Hughes Tidwell of Killen, Alabama, USA.
Database Locator Identification Number: p726605
File Size: 2.813 Megabytes

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