Welcome to the Mackinac County American Local History Web Page

We are Terry Weller and Cindy Leutz and we are hosting the Mackinac County page of the American Local History Network. We would like to invite you to come walk with us on a tour into the past. If you are like us, whenever we get a chance to enjoy Mackinac County, we get the feeling of coming home. With it's rugged beauty, a unique county that claims shoreline on two of our five Great Lakes; Huron to the east and Lake Michigan to the west, it seems to embrace you in it's arms. With it's rich history spanning hundreds of years, we feel confident you will enjoy the journey. So come join us now, as we look at the Native Americans who were the first inhabitants of this land, the French fur trade, the voyageurs, the British, French and American armies that fought for control of the strategic location, the fishing, mining and freighter industries and the mix of cultures that call Mackinac County home.

Please feel free to sign our guestbook or email either of us from the contact link above. Our personal web pages are attached with genealogies and additional areas of interest. We look forward to hearing your comments. If you have a web site that may be of interest or pertains to Mackinac County please send us an e-mail for consideration. Thanks for taking the time to look at this site. Enjoy your visit!

Mackinac County History

Mackinac County was originally laid out under the name of Michilimackinac in 1818. There are two theories about the origin of the name. One indicates the word as a place of the Mishinimaki, an ancient tribe that inhabited the island and whose spirits still dwell there. The second refers that the word was the French interpretation of a Native American word that meant great turtle, the shape of the island from a distance.

Early Mackinac County comprised most the territory of Michigan and much of Wisconsin. As the years passed and people began to inhabit these areas, the size of the county eventually evolved into the permanent boundaries established today.
Today, the Mackinac Bridge spans over a turbulent strait. Three hundred and fifty years ago was the scene of the Europeans arrival in the America's Middlewest. It became the cradle of Northwest history at a time when the French controlled or claimed most of the region east of the Mississippi River from Louisiana to Lake Superior, known as New France. A stream of French explorers, adventurers, missionaries and fur traders venturing into an unknown wilderness, landed on its beaches. But the French found Michilimackinac, they did not establish it.