June 28, 2017
Making More History Every Day at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island
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MACKINAC ISLAND, MICHIGAN Ð Ken Salmon, ma”tre Ôd at MichiganÕs Grand Hotel, has been greeting guests, shaking hands, exchanging hugs and posing for photos for one-third of this historic hotelÕs existence. Salmon, known as Chief to his dining room crew, is in his 43rd season at the summer resort hotel that is marking its 130th year of operation. According to hotel historian Bob Tagatz, the Grand Hotel is among only 11 wood-frame destination hotels in America that survive from an era when more than 1,200 were built, largely by transportation companies, to serve the well-to-do of the late 1800s and early 1900s. That was the era when America began producing leisure travelers in abundance. TodayÕs Grand Hotel, which bills itself as AmericaÕs largest summer hotel and is a National Historic Landmark, has 393 rooms, an international staff of 750 and the longest porch in the world (660 feet), which overlooks the Straits of Mackinac and the Mackinac Bridge that connects MichiganÕs upper and lower peninsulas. Ken Salmon will be there to greet you through October 30, when the 2017 season ends. (Photo by Tom Adkinson)
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