I Rode the Mackinac Island Carriage Tours

Red text around an illustration of a carriage on a light yellow background

Located in Michigan, Mackinac Island is an island resort town which covers 3.8 square miles in Lake Huron. It is well-known for these horse drawn carriage "tours" that are the main source of transportation for both tourists and residents of the small island. 

Mackinac Island Carriage Tours, Inc. was officially founded in 1948 by "the carriage men" -- those who had already been giving their own horse drawn carriage tours of the island since 1869. These men, led by their president, Thomas Chambers, successfully petitioned to ban cars from the island since they felt that motorized vehicles startled the horses. Since then, these carriage rides are the only way for tourists and residents to get around on the island, aside from bicycles. Their necessity to both visitors and natives has made the company the world's oldest "horse and buggy" service which currently offers approximately 100 carriages and over 400 horses to pull them with.