Mackinaw - Definition and Overview

Mackinaw or related spellings is the name of several different places and things, mostly related to the area where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron. Mackinac is a Native American word which is generally pronounced as Mac in aw.

• Straits of Mackinac connects the lakes and separates the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan
• Mackinac Island, an island east of the straits which bans automobiles
• Mackinac Island State Park, which preserves a large part of the island
• Fort Mackinac, a British, later American fort on the island
• Fort Michilimackinac, a British fort on the south side of the straits
• Mackinaw City, Michigan, village on the south side of straits
• Mackinac Bridge bridges the straits for road traffic.
• Mackinac Ferry spans/spanned the straits for other traffic including railroad.

• Mackinac Point, perhaps the northernmost point in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan
• Mackinac Point Lighthouse
• Mackinaw boat, a type of small sailboat used in the Upper Great Lakes
• Mackinaw cloth, a heavy wool cloth
• Mackinaw Fur Company, founded by John Jacob Astor.
• Mackinaw River, a tributary of the Illinois River
• USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB-83), a United States Coast Guard icebreaker on the Great Lakes

There is also the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the two Mackinaw sailboat races, the Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race and the Chicago to Mackinac Boat Race.

A "mackinaw" is a short coat of a heavy dense water-repellent woolen, such as Melton cloth, sometimes with a doubled shoulder, first worn by American loggers in the north midwest, mid 19th century, and now universal.