Places in Michigan – Mackinac Island’s Cemeteries

Last weekend, I went with my lovely wife Michelle to Mackinac Island. And yes, it was a little windy. But, we visited EVERY shop downtown (no, really - every shop), had a couple of adult beverages and took a walk to the cemeteries on the island and Arch Rock. Not because we were looking for ghosts, but because it's just a beautiful walk through the woods.

At the St. Anne Cemetery (there's actually three, right next to each other) you can check out the oldest grave-site - the grave of Mary Biddle. Mary was only 8 years old when she went out onto the ice on the lake in 1833 and fell in. Mary was pulled out successfully, but died of pneumonia a week later. Right before Christmas. The story goes that her father Edward didn't want that to happen to anyone else, so he came up with the idea of marking the trail of thicker ice with old Christmas trees. To this day, that's how the trail is marked, even though now it's for snowmobiles.

We've been to this cemetery before, but this was the first time I'd noticed the coins and stones on top of the grave markers. We wondered what that was all about. Snopes.com had the answer. I think it's a cool tradition.

If you're headed up north this weekend, the trees should be in their fall colors. Last Sunday they were just starting to turn color north of Clare. Have fun.

Banana Don and Stephanie McCoy amuse and thrill you every weekday morning from 5:30 –10AM on the radio at 100.7 WITL.
Banana Don can be reached via email at don.jefferson@townsquaremedia.com and on Twitter at @WITLBananaDon and @WITLFM. Also, Facebook friend Banana Don and Stephanie at Facebook.com/BananaStephanie and Facebook.com/WITLFM.