Mackinac Island, MI

Mackinac Island is a Mackinac County city of 583 residents in the 2020 census, reached by ferry across Lake Huron and wrapped inside Mackinac Island State Park. The city grew from an 18th-century fur-trading center and served as a county seat until 1882. Today the same small island holds a year-round school, Fort Mackinac, Grand Hotel, Main Street fudge shops, and the park's trails and shoreline. Fort Mackinac and the park's historic buildings bring the island's military and fur-trade past into the same streets used by residents and seasonal workers.

The island's practical rule is the thing everyone notices first: motorized vehicles are banned, so bicycles, horses, and ferries move people and supplies. The city and State Park Commission share responsibility for an island that is 82% state-owned, while the Mackinac Island School District runs one pre-K through 12th-grade school. Mackinac Island's local map is a working town inside a state park, with summer visitors layered over a small year-round community.