Michigan Hidden History

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin return to Mackinac Island’s religious history to explore Trinity Episcopal Church, a congregation whose story began decades before its Victorian Gothic church was built in 1882.The story begins in 1837, when Bishop Jackson Kemper, the Episcopal Church’s first missionary bishop and the man known as the “Apostle to the West,” preached on Mackinac Island. For the next thirty-six years, the island’s Episcopalians worshipped wherever they could, including the Mission Church, Fort Mackinac’s post chapel, and even the county courthouse.As Mackinac Island transformed into a major summer resort destination, the growing congregation formally organized a parish in 1873 and finally built Trinity Episcopal Church nine years later. Inside are pieces of craftsmanship that still connect visitors directly to the nineteenth century, including a hand-carved walnut altar and two chancel chairs made by soldiers stationed at Fort Mackinac.Tharan and Robin also compare Trinity with the Little Stone Church and explore how Mackinac Island’s Catholic, Episcopal, and ecumenical Protestant congregations reflected the different communities that called the island home.From borrowed courthouses and military chapels to handmade furniture and more than a century of summer worship, Trinity Episcopal Church shows how a community of faith slowly built something permanent on an island defined by change.You build something that lasts. Then, generation after generation, you keep coming back.

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin uncover one of Mackinac Island’s most overlooked stories: Jean and Jeanne Bonga, a Black couple whose lives reveal a little-known chapter of slavery, freedom, and entrepreneurship on the Great Lakes frontier.The episode begins in the 1780s, when the Bongas were connected to British garrison commander Captain Daniel Robertson. Historical records suggest they may have been enslaved before becoming free residents of Mackinac Island. Their 1794 marriage record at Ste. Anne de Michilimackinac provides the clearest early documentation of their freedom and their place within the island community.After gaining their freedom, Jean and Jeanne opened a tavern and inn in the late 1780s that was later described as the first hotel on Mackinac Island. In a frontier community filled with soldiers, traders, travelers, and Indigenous families, the Bongas built a business that provided food, shelter, and a gathering place for the people passing through the island.Tharan and Robin also explore the precarious reality of being free and Black on the eighteenth-century frontier, the family’s survival after Jean’s death in 1795, and the extraordinary life of their grandson George Bonga, who became a voyageur, interpreter, merchant, and link between Black, European, and Anishinaabek communities.From slavery and freedom to business, family, and the beginnings of Mackinac Island hospitality, this episode brings Jean and Jeanne Bonga out from behind a historical marker and puts their names back into the story of Michigan.Before the Grand Hotel, before the resorts, Jean and Jeanne Bonga were among Mackinac Island’s first hosts.

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin uncover two stories connected by one street on Mackinac Island: the rise of the North American fur trade and the accidental shooting that helped transform medical science.First, they explore Market Street at the height of the fur trade, when John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company made Mackinac Island the center of a massive commercial network stretching across the Great Lakes. Every summer, thousands of Anishinaabek traders, French Canadian voyageurs, merchants, and company agents converged on the island, moving millions of dollars worth of furs through one of the most important trading centers in North America.The episode also examines the crucial roles played by the voyageurs and Anishinaabek nations, whose knowledge, labor, and trading networks made the industry possible, as well as the economic and cultural consequences that remained after the fur trade declined.Then comes June 6, 1822. Nineteen-year-old voyageur Alexis St. Martin was accidentally shot at close range inside the American Fur Company Store. He survived, but the wound left a permanent opening into his stomach. Army surgeon Dr. William Beaumont recognized an unprecedented opportunity and eventually conducted hundreds of experiments that laid the foundation for modern understanding of human digestion.From beaver hats and voyageurs to an accidental musket blast and groundbreaking medical research, this episode reveals just how much history can be hidden on one Mackinac Island street.One street. One accidental shooting. And the history of medicine changed forever.

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin step inside the Biddle House, the oldest surviving structure on Mackinac Island, to uncover the story of a remarkable building and an even more remarkable woman. Dating to the 1780s, the house was constructed using the rare French Canadian piece sur piece en coulisse technique and has survived more than two centuries of change on the island.But the heart of this episode is Agatha Biddle. An Anishinaabek woman who married Pennsylvania trader Edward Biddle in 1819, Agatha helped build a successful merchant household while maintaining deep ties to her Native community. By the 1860s, she had become a chief of the Mackinac Band of Odawa and Ojibway, part of a community in which women held significant leadership roles.Tharan and Robin explore Agatha’s reputation for generosity, her ability to navigate both Anishinaabek and American society, and the important role Native women played in the Great Lakes fur trade. They also examine how her life offers another perspective on the cultural pressures and missionary activity discussed earlier in the season.Finally, the episode follows the Biddle House through decline, restoration, and its transformation in 2020 into the Mackinac Island Native American Museum, bringing the story of the building back to the people whose history has always been at the center of the island.From French Canadian architecture and the fur trade to Native leadership, family, and cultural survival, the Biddle House holds more than two centuries of Mackinac Island history within its walls.Sometimes Michigan’s hidden history is literally in the walls.

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin step just off Mackinac Island to uncover the story of the Round Island Lighthouse, the red brick tower seen by thousands of ferry passengers every year but understood by very few.Built in 1895 to help ships navigate the dangerous waters of the Straits of Mackinac, the lighthouse operated continuously for fifty-two years. Tharan and Robin explore the hazardous currents, storms, fog, and navigation challenges that made a lighthouse on Round Island a matter of life and death for Great Lakes sailors.They also look at the human side of lighthouse keeping, from the original three-person crews who maintained the light around the clock to the lone caretakers who remained after the station was automated in 1924. Then, in 1947, a new beacon made the lighthouse obsolete, leaving the historic structure abandoned and slowly falling into ruin.But the story did not end there. Preservation advocates, volunteers, and the U.S. Forest Service stepped in to save the deteriorating lighthouse, ensuring that the tower would remain standing as a reminder of the dangerous history beneath the seemingly peaceful waters of the Straits.From isolated lighthouse keepers and Great Lakes shipwrecks to abandonment and preservation, this episode tells the story behind one of Mackinac Island’s most familiar views.Next time you take the ferry, look south. Now you’ll know what you’re looking at.

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin slow things down to explore one of Mackinac Island’s quieter landmarks: the Little Stone Church, officially known as Union Congregational Church. Built in 1904 from glacial fieldstones gathered by hand from the island itself, the church grew from the vision of just eleven charter members who wanted a place of worship for Mackinac Island’s summer community.They uncover how local builder Frank Rounds and his crew collected stones deposited by ancient glaciers and transformed them into the church’s walls, combining the island’s natural history with its human history.Inside, fourteen stained glass windows installed in 1914 tell stories from Mackinac Island’s past, including the fur trade, missionary activity, and the experiences of Native people during a period of major cultural and religious change. Tharan and Robin examine not only the beauty of those windows, but also the more complicated history they represent and how our understanding of those stories has changed over time.The episode also explores the church’s century-long role as a summer place of worship and one of Michigan’s most beloved wedding destinations.From Ice Age geology to stained glass, faith, community, and cultural change, the Little Stone Church proves that some of Michigan’s biggest stories can be found in its smallest buildings.Eleven people. A lot of rocks. More than a century of history.

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin uncover how Mackinac Island became the backdrop for two major political and business gatherings whose influence reached far beyond northern Michigan.First, they travel back to 1943, when Republican leaders gathered at the Grand Hotel during World War II to debate America’s role in the postwar world. At the center was Michigan Senator Arthur Vandenberg, a former isolationist who became one of the country’s strongest advocates for international cooperation. The compromise forged at Mackinac helped build Republican support for the United Nations and, later, NATO.That gathering eventually evolved into the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, attracting major political figures including Ronald Reagan, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and others.Then, Tharan and Robin explore the very different origins of the Mackinac Policy Conference. Beginning in 1904 as a business conference held aboard a Great Lakes cruise ship, the event moved to Mackinac Island in 1981 and grew into one of the Midwest’s most influential gatherings of political, business, and civic leaders.From wartime foreign policy debates to conversations about Michigan’s economy, infrastructure, and future, this episode reveals how the Grand Hotel’s famous porch became much more than a place to relax.Two conferences. One island. Decisions that reached far beyond Michigan.

In Part Two of Michigan Hidden History’s Grand Hotel series, Tharan and Robin continue the story of Mackinac Island’s most iconic hotel by exploring the people, films, traditions, and restoration efforts that shaped the Grand into what it is today.The episode begins with the Musser family, who purchased the hotel in 1979 and helped create its unmistakable style through a decades-long partnership with Dorothy Draper & Company. Then, Hollywood returns to Mackinac Island with Somewhere in Time, the 1980 film starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer that transformed the Grand Hotel into a pilgrimage destination for generations of fans.Tharan and Robin also uncover the Grand Hotel’s National Historic Landmark designation, its collection of rooms honoring former First Ladies, and the end of the Musser family’s forty-year ownership era. Finally, they explore the massive restoration project working to return the hotel’s exterior to its historic appearance while preserving the character that has made it famous for more than a century.From Hollywood romance and presidential history to bold design and historic preservation, Part Two tells the story of how generation after generation has chosen to keep the Grand Hotel alive.The Grand Hotel exists because people kept deciding it was worth saving.

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin explore the surprising story behind one of Michigan’s most recognizable landmarks: the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.Opened in 1887 by a partnership of railroad and steamship companies, the Grand Hotel was built to attract travelers to Mackinac Island and quickly became famous for its massive 660-foot front porch. But behind the elegance was a far less glamorous story. For decades, the hotel struggled financially, went through multiple managers, and in 1910 even faced a serious proposal to tear it down and sell the land.Then came W. Stewart Woodfill. Starting as a desk clerk before becoming manager in 1923, Woodfill would eventually buy the struggling hotel during the Great Depression and guide it through economic hardship, World War II, and decades of change. His determination helped transform the Grand Hotel from a struggling seasonal resort into a world-famous Michigan landmark.Along the way, discover the Grand Hotel’s connection to Mackinac Island’s automobile ban, Mark Twain, early phonograph demonstrations, and Hollywood star Esther Williams.This is Part One of our two-part Grand Hotel story: the building, the struggle, and the man who refused to let it disappear.

In this episode of Michigan Hidden History, Tharan and Robin return to Mackinac Island to uncover two remarkable stories connected by the same historic ground at Fort Mackinac.First, discover the origins of the Governor’s Honor Guard, which began in 1929 with eight Eagle Scouts, including a young Gerald Ford, decades before he became the 38th President of the United States. Follow the program as it grew, from a Scout barracks built by World War I veterans during the Great Depression to the inclusion of Girl Scouts in 1975 and the tradition that continues every summer today.Then travel back to 1885, when soldiers stationed at Fort Mackinac formed their own baseball club. Games drew spectators to a 500-seat grandstand overlooking Lake Huron, and the parade ground they played on is considered Michigan’s oldest continuously used baseball field.From future presidents raising flags to soldiers playing baseball, this episode shows how one small piece of Mackinac Island has carried generations of Michigan history.Two stories. One parade ground. Hundreds of years of Michigan life.