Green Island (Michigan)

The Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve is a 148-square-mile (380 km2) state preserve in and around the Straits of Mackinac. The preserve is divided in two by the Mackinac Bridge. The waters of the preserve include the waters offshore from Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, as well as all or part of the shorelines of Bois Blanc Island, Mackinac Island, Round Island, and St. Helena Island. The preserve contains at least eleven identified diveable wrecks, with more just outside the official boundaries. There are also a number of shallow sites suitable for snorkeling and kayak visits. Frequent fog and congested shipping added to the count of shipwrecks in the Straits area. Half a dozen lighthouses in and around the preserve testify to the dangers that existed prior to the invention of radar in the 1940s. However, tragedies have continued. One modern wreck within the boundaries of the preserve is Cedarville, a lake freighter transporting limestone that sank in 1965 after a collision. Divers also visit underwater formations of Mackinac breccia near Mackinac Island; one such formation, the "Rock Maze", is offshore from Arch Rock. Further east off Arch Rock, a drowned, 100-foot (30 m)-high waterfall formation, Mackinac Falls, was discovered in August 2007.

The Straits of Mackinac ( MAK-ə-naw; French: Détroit de Mackinac) are the short waterways between the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, traversed by the Mackinac Bridge. The main strait is 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 kilometers) wide with a maximum depth of 295 feet (90 meters; 49 fathoms), and connects the Great Lakes of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Given the large size and configuration of the straits, hydrologically, the two connected lakes are one body of water, studied as Lake Michigan–Huron. Historically, the native Odawa people called the region around the Straits Michilimackinac. Three islands form the eastern edge of the Straits of Mackinac; two are populated—Bois Blanc Island and Mackinac Island, while the third, Round Island, is uninhabited and a designated wilderness area. The Straits of Mackinac are major shipping lanes, providing passage for raw materials and finished goods and connecting, for instance, the iron mines of Minnesota to the steel mills of Gary, Indiana. Before the railroads reached Chicago from the east, most immigrants arrived in the Midwest and Great Plains by ships on the Great Lakes. The straits are five miles (8 km) wide at their narrowest point, where they are spanned by the Mackinac Bridge. Before the bridge was built, car ferries transported vehicles across the straits. Today passenger-only ferries carry people to Mackinac Island, which does not permit cars. Visitors can take their vehicles on a car ferry to Bois Blanc Island. The straits are shallow and narrow enough to freeze over in the winter. Navigation is ensured for year-round shipping to the Lower Great Lakes by the use of icebreakers. The straits were an important Native American and fur trade route. The Straits of Mackinac are named after Mackinac Island. The local Ojibwe Native Americans in the Straits of Mackinac region likened the shape of the island to that of a turtle, so they named the island Mitchimakinak, meaning "Big Turtle". When the British explored the area, they shortened the name to its present form: Mackinac.Located on the southern side of the straits is the town of Mackinaw City, the site of Fort Michilimackinac, a reconstructed French fort founded in 1715, and on the northern side is St. Ignace, site of a French Catholic mission to the Indians, founded in 1671. The eastern end of the straits was controlled by Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, a British colonial and early American military base and fur trade center, founded in 1781.

Lake Michigan–Huron (also Huron–Michigan) is the body of water combining Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, which are joined through the 5-mile-wide (8.0 km), 295-foot-deep (90 m), open-water Straits of Mackinac. Huron and Michigan are hydrologically a single lake because the flow of water through the straits keeps their water levels in overall equilibrium. Although the flow is generally eastward, the water moves in either direction depending on local conditions. Combined, Lake Michigan–Huron is the largest freshwater lake by area in the world. Lake Superior is larger than either individually, so it is counted as the largest of the Great Lakes when Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are considered separately.

The Mackinac Bridge Walk is an annual event held every Labor Day since 1958 in Michigan in which people may walk the length of the Mackinac Bridge. Walkers are traditionally led across by the governor of Michigan. In an average year, 40,000 to 65,000 people participate in the five-mile walk. This is nearly the combined population of the three counties connected by the bridge. The Labor Day bridge walk is the sole exception to the rule prohibiting pedestrians on the bridge.

The Mackinac Bridge ( MAK-ə-naw; also referred to as the Mighty Mac or Big Mac) is a suspension bridge that connects the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan. It spans the Straits of Mackinac, a body of water connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, two of the Great Lakes. Opened in 1957, the 26,372-foot-long (4.995 mi; 8.038 km) bridge is the world's 27th-longest main span and is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere. The Mackinac Bridge is part of Interstate 75 (I-75) and the Lake Michigan and Huron components of the Great Lakes Circle Tour across the straits; it is also a segment of the U.S. North Country National Scenic Trail. The bridge connects the city of St. Ignace to the north with the village of Mackinaw City to the south. Envisioned since the 1880s, the bridge was designed by the engineer David B. Steinman and completed in 1957 only after many decades of struggles to begin construction. The bridge has since become an iconic symbol of the state of Michigan.

The Mackinac Bridge Authority is an independent state agency of the U.S. state of Michigan that operates the Mackinac Bridge across the Straits of Mackinac. The Mackinac Bridge Authority has been directed by the state of Michigan to maintain the Mackinac Bridge as a self-supporting facility. The Mackinac Bridge is a toll bridge, with the tolls set at a level determined by the authority and its governing board.

Straits State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Michigan located in Moran Township and St. Ignace in Mackinac County on the northern shores of the Straits of Mackinac. The Father Marquette National Memorial and park is also located within the state park boundaries. The park has 255 campsites and several locations for viewing the Mackinac Bridge.

Father Marquette National Memorial pays tribute to the life and work of Jacques Marquette, French priest and explorer. The memorial is located in Straits State Park near St. Ignace in the modern-day U.S. state of Michigan, where he founded a Jesuit mission in 1671 and was buried in 1678. The associated Father Marquette Museum building was destroyed in a fire on March 9, 2000.

St. Ignace ( IHG-nəss) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Mackinac County. The city had a population of 2,306 at the 2020 census. St. Ignace Township is located just to the north of the city, but the two are administered autonomously. St. Ignace is located along Lake Huron in the Upper Peninsula on the northern side of the Straits of Mackinac. The city serves as a gateway to the state's Upper Peninsula for travelers coming from the Lower Peninsula, as the city is at the north end of the Mackinac Bridge, opposite Mackinaw City. It has one of two ports which provide ferry service to nearby Mackinac Island. St. Ignace's history dates back to 1671 when French Jesuit priests founded the St. Ignace Mission, which makes it one of the oldest European settlements in the state after Sault Ste. Marie. The area was previously inhabited by the Wyandot people, as well as the Ojibwe and Ottawa tribes of Native Americans. St. Ignace soon became the center of fur trading with the French. It was incorporated as a village in 1882 and a city in 1883. The Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians is headquartered at St. Ignace, and the city continues to have a high population of Native Americans.

St. Anthony's Rock is a geological limestone sea stack and tourist attraction located in the central part of the city of St. Ignace, Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The John Chambers House is an originally residential building located at 90 North State Street in St. Ignace, Michigan. The house is currently operated as the Colonial House Inn. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Fort de Buade was a French fort in the present U.S. state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula across the Straits of Mackinac from the northern tip of lower Michigan's "mitten". It was garrisoned between 1683 and 1701. The city of St. Ignace developed at the site, which also had the historic St. Ignace Mission founded by Jesuits. The fort was named after New France's governor at the time, Louis de Buade de Frontenac.