Celebrating 125 Years of Banning Horseless Carriages

This story first appeared in the July 28, 2023, Mackinac Island Town Crier print edition

Mackinac Island is famous for its ban on automobiles, so it was a rare sight when, on the afternoon of Friday, July 21, a strange-looking, horseless carriage sat on the lawn of Marquette Park below Fort Mackinac. It took interpreters from the Gilmore Car Museum in Kalamazoo, dressed in period clothing, several tries and nearly 10 minutes to start the car. Onlookers jeered and wrinkled their noses at a distinct smell rarely found on the Island, as gasoline sputtered from the car’s open-faced mechanics. When the vehicle finally started, the crowds cheered, but the machine’s glory was short-lived (which was the plan all along). The vehicle made its way down Market Street, where the cheers turned to jeers before the car stopped entirely, coming face to face with a ceremonial blockade in front of City Hall.

Mackinac State Historic Parks Director Steve Brisson, Mayor Margaret Doud, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ceremonially reaffirmed the ban of horseless carriages from Mackinac Island. The ceremony kicked off a weekend of events commemorating the 125th anniversary of the motorized vehicle ban.

Jim Hart, a mechanic with the Gilmore Car Museum, spins the 1886 Benz Motorwagen’s flywheel to start the engine. It took multiple tries to start the car, which they later learned was due to a faulty sparkplug. 

The 1886 Benz Motorwagen from the Gilmore Car Museum was like the model that initiated the original horseless carriage ban. As the automobile sputtered toward the blockade, Mayor Doud, Governor Whitmer, and Mr. Brisson held up stop signs and addressed the drivers, historic interpreters Jay Follis and Jim Hart.

“We have something to say,” Mr. Brisson said, and people started to giggle.

Mr. Follis and Mr. Hart climbed down from the vehicle and asked what was the matter. Mayor Doud then read from the original decree, and reaffirmed the city’s commitment to the auto ban.

“Now, as Mayor Margaret Doud, on behalf of the City of Mackinac Island, I do declare that such contraptions remain banned in our fair city,” she ended her declaration.

Mr. Brisson followed, saying, “Now I, Director Steve Brisson, on behalf of the people of Michigan, do declare that these noxious machines be banned from our state parks.”

Gilmore Car Museum Director of Education Fred Colgren.

“As governor of the great State of Michigan, I endorse this message,” Governor Whitmer said. “Mackinac Island is a special place, and we must ensure that it remains so for generations to come.”

Mayor Doud also declared that “horse is king” on Mackinac Island.

“Leave our Island and trouble us no more,” the three leaders said in unison.

With that, the large crowd gathered outside City Hall threw their fists in the air and erupted with cheers. Mr. Follis and Mr. Hart then asked for a pardon from Governor Whitmer, who, in response, gave them a thumbs-down.

Mackinac State Historic Parks partnered with Gilmore Car Museum in Kalamazoo to bring the Benz Motorwagen to the Island. It was on display outside Fort Mackinac Saturday, July 22, and Sunday, July 23, with museum interpreters on hand to answer questions.

Ric Cartar, one of the Gilmore Car Museum interpreters who helped start the car before its ill-fated Friday ride, said they were “kind of sweating it” when the vehicle didn’t start right away, despite the rowdy banter between the interpreters and the audience. It ended up being a fouled sparkplug, he said, that they woke up early to fix before the car went on display Saturday. It appeared to take at least 20 tries to start the car Friday night, spinning the flywheel to start the engine, but it started right away after the sparkplug was replaced, he said.

Mayor Margaret Doud (from left), Steve Brisson, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Jay Follis, and Jim Hart with the Gilmore Car Museum’s 1886 Benz Motorwagen in front of City Hall Friday, July 21.

The car came over on a freight boat and was delivered at British Landing, said Gilmore Museum eductation director Fred Colgren. The vehicle could not be driven except for sanctioned events like Friday’s ceremony. This was the first time the Gilmore Car Museum got to participate in an event like this, he said, and they were glad to have the opportunity to partake in this “crazy” experience. Mr. Colgren followed the Motorwagen Friday with a picket sign that read, “Dispense with a Horse.” He also drove the car back up the street after the ride. Interpreter and historian John Burton was also with the group.

The specific 1886 Benz Motorwagen was part of a batch of 100 cars made in 1986 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the automobile, Mr. Cartar said. To be exact, it was car number 67 of that batch. The vehicle is driven a couple of times a year.

The car is regarded as the first successful automobile, and it is also the first concept car with an internal combustion engine. A tricycle, the Motorwagen is directed by a tiller, rather than a steering wheel. It has a 57-inch wheelbase, a single-cylinder gas engine, tops out at eight miles per hour, and runs under one horsepower. It has a large flywheel, typical of many early cars, Mr. Colgren said, that provides weight and momentum for the car’s engine, and spinning the flywheel starts the vehicle. This model runs on gasoline, but in the early days, steam and electric were also popular ways to motor cars. There may have been other models of cars before this one, but they weren’t as successful.

“This gets the credit for being the first car,” Mr. Colgren said.

Some people, when seeing the vehicle for the first time in the late 1800s, didn’t know how to react, he said.

“They thought it was witchcraft,” Mr. Colgren said.

Bertha Benz, inventor Carl Benz’s wife, took the car on a road trip across Germany. Even though Mr. Benz, one of the founders of the modern-day Mercedes-Benz company, is credited with creating the Motorwagen, it was really his wife Mrs. Benz who enabled its creation.

“You think of it as being a guy’s world, but a (woman) really was significant in starting the automobile,” Mr. Colgren said.

Earlier this year, former Mackinac State Parks director and historian Phil Porter wrote a new vignette describing the history of the automobile ban called, “Where Horse is King: Mackinac Island’s Automobile Ban.” The vignette is available for purchase at Mackinac State Historic Parks museum stores. It shares the history of automobiles on Mackinac Island, from the cities’ first ban in 1898 followed by the ban by the Mackinac State Historic Parks a few years later, to the Islands’ current, modern-day battles with electric bikes. While the Island mostly remains motorized-vehicle-free, but visitors may observe that there are some exemptions. Construction vehicles, golf carts, tractors, riding lawnmowers, utility trucks, and other vehicles are allowed with premits from the City Council and state park. The Island is also equipped with an ambulance, fire trucks, and a police vehicle for emergency response.

Despite these modern-day allowances and challenges, Friday’s event made very clear that Mackinac Island’s automobile ban isn’t going away anytime soon. It remains a community brimming with horse-drawn carriages unlike any other place in the world, where “horse is king.”