Mackinac Bridge tractor tour

Hey all -

Am sure most Michiganders are aware, but guessing most of you outside of the state have not. On September, 19th, a registered lot of 839 antique tractors will be driving across the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan. This is a 5 mile long suspension bridge that crosses the straits between upper & lower Michigan. It is somewhere around 200' off the water in the center of the bridge. Overall, the route is 20 miles long and should be a grand time with tractors of all colors on the tour. This is the second year this is going on.

Will be taking my W-30 with me and will be shooting a lot of pictures.

Pete

(quoted from post at 10:41:54 09/11/09) Hey all -

Am sure most Michiganders are aware, but guessing most of you outside of the state have not. On September, 19th, a registered lot of 839 antique tractors will be driving across the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan. This is a 5 mile long suspension bridge that crosses the straits between upper & lower Michigan. It is somewhere around 200' off the water in the center of the bridge. Overall, the route is 20 miles long and should be a grand time with tractors of all colors on the tour. This is the second year this is going on.

Will be taking my W-30 with me and will be shooting a lot of pictures.

Pete

Click to expand...

This one:

Yup ! That's the bridge!

And for you non-Michigander, is is pronounced "mac-in-aw". There are two different spellings in that area of various items & locations. "Mackinac" is the French version of Mackinaw, which is the British version. Over the years, both the French & British controlled this area, thus both names have lived on and have been used in various titles.

Hey Pete, that one looks like a fun thing for my daughter and I to do with her B. How did you go about getting registered? Would be interested for next year.

I live 7 miles south of the bridge. Would love to take one of my farmalls but really really disappointed that they do it again this year on a weekday. Needs to be on a sunday morning or even friday or sat. I know a bunch of my friends that have the same problem. Who is the head of putting it together?

That's got to be a long trip from Holland to the Straights. Five hours maybe?

Last time I was in Holland, MI was for the Tulip Festival in May of 1968. Took the windmill tour. I had just gotten my USMC discharge from the Glenview Naval Air Station outside of Chicago and was heading home on a motorcycle to MA. Always thought it would be fun to build a windmill but settled on buying a Dempster water pumper. It still runs.

Dave H -

Do a search for "2009 Mackinac Bridge Tractor Tour". Owosso Tractor Parts chairs it. You need to be associated with a club with insurance to be a part of the tour. Also, one of the rules are: One person per tractor, regardless of your seating arrangements that you've come up with. Look up their rules & regs and you'll see the other details. Yea, there is a lot, but it is done for people/tractor/bridge safety.

Is anyone going to make a commercial tape or CD of the tour ? I'd sure like to see it, but I'm on the west coast.

Dalex - Check out the tour's web site. Yes, stills & videos will be shot and available. I think you can buy last year's if you want.

For those that don't know much about "The Bridge", as most Michiganders know it, this bridge is nearly out in the middle of no-where (as compared to other large bridges). It bridges the city of Mackinaw City (year round population of about 1000) and St. Ignace (year around population of about 3500). Small cities, but is the main artery between the Upper & Lower Penninsulas of Michigan, carrying 557,000 vehicles in August of 2009!

Depending on how you rank bridges, its suspended length of 8614' is greater than the Golden Gate and Verrazano-narrows by about 30%, and overall length of 26,372 feet is about 3X the length of the Golden Gate and 2X the length of the V-N bridge. Most bridges are measured between the towers for bragging rights, but the whole bridge is required to cross from shore to shore.

We are proud of our bridge.

I've got a place nearby and am going as a spectator. Too much work to register and run any tractors there.

I doubt the name-origin quite works as you've described. "Mackinac" was an attempt at spelling part of the Wendat and/or Ojibway Indian name for a "big turtle" which was big part of their culture. The Mac Island was the "big turtle", as were many other things. The original attempt at spelling the spoken word from the Indians was "Michilimackinac." Back then, often French or English speakers couldn't even find letters that replicated some of the actual sounds they were hearing from the Indians. My name (which is French) originally had the number 8 in it, instead of a letter. That because the number 8 in French, when spoken, best replicates the sound of the Indian sound.
"Mackinaw" was a name derived from cloth that some Métis Indians made for non-Indians.
As far as who named what and why, later, we will probably never been know for sure. You've got a bunch of non-Indians who tried to use non-Indian written language to use Indian words. Then later, you've got non-French and non-British-English speakers changing spellings even more.
Same problem even exits with the names we use for the Indian tribes. The name Ojibwa and Huron are names non-Indians made up and not what they called themselves.
By the way, I've met quite a few native Michigan people who think the big bridge is spelled "Mackinaw." So, it's not just the trolls below the bridge, or out-of-staters.

It certainly is a neat bridge. My wife worked for many years on Mackinac Island and also at the nearby Fort Michilimackinac.

The Mac Bridge was built within the projected timeframe and did not go over budget, which is pretty amazing.

Two New York engineers were pretty much responsible for designing and building it. Mr. Fowler and Mr.Steinman.

As I understand it, much of Michigan was settled by New Yorkers (not counting the UP), when land got too expensive in New York State. Michigan was a new frontier with cheap land (and swamps).
Otsego County in northern Michigan is named after Otesgo County in New York.

Hi Pete, I spent 10 days in the Mackinaw area in August. Really enjoyed the sights and learned alot about the history of the area. Also went up to the locks at the border with Canada.
My wife lived in Cheboygan when she was a kid. Her father served on the USCG Icebreaker, Mackinaw.

My Father and Uncle will be there with their 2-71 DD powered M... I may be there depending upon work load this week and if I can sneak away.

Also a car and custom semi show in St. Ignace that weekend. Tractors go North on Friday... Semis go South on Saturday...

Days Inn in St. Ignace still had rooms as of last week.

Owosso Tractor Parts coordinates the run. Would guess the day on a Friday is such that it doesn't interfere with weekend traffic that much.

Yea, it might be better for folks to have it on a weekend, but there are still 839 of us who can make it, and most of us are still working-stiffs.

My guess too his that the event is more for the the tractor driver than the spectators, thus the day of the week isn't really a major issue. As far as a parade, we've been told to be able to maintain 10 mph. That is too quick for a parade to be able to study anything going by.

I crossed that bridge once in the truck. A tractor sounds different. I used to haul to Walmart stores in MI but haven't been above 94 in about 5 years now.

Dirty Jobs did a show on the bridge once, too.