Interesting Facts About Grand Hotel

• At 660 feet, Grand Hotel's Front Porch is the world's largest, and is visible as you approach the Island from Lake Huron.

• No motorized vehicles are allowed on Michigan's Mackinac Island. All transportation is provided by horse and carriage or bicycle.

• Mackinac Island is accessible only by ferry boat or plane.

• More than 130,000 overnight guests stay at Grand Hotel each season.

• The 5,000,000th guest in Grand Hotel history checked in on June 26, 2006.

• While more than 1 million people visit Mackinac Island each year, the Island has only 600 year-round residents.

• It takes 500,000 gallons of water to fill Grand Hotel's swimming pool, which was named for actress Esther Williams when she starred in the 1947 movie, This Time for Keeps, shot at Grand Hotel.

• The 1980 film Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer, was filmed on location at Grand Hotel. The movie now has a huge following and fan club that meets yearly at Grand Hotel in late October.

• There are more than 500 horses on Mackinac Island.

• Five U.S. Presidents have visited Grand Hotel: Presidents Clinton, Bush, Ford, Kennedy and Truman.

• Grand Hotel's kitchen staff of more than 100 people prepares and serves as many as 4,000 meals per day.

• During the 2008 season, Grand Hotel used 83,000 pounds of prime rib, 23,500 pounds of ham, 83,500 pounds of potatoes, 23,000 pounds of carrots, 14,000 pounds of strawberries and 6,500 pounds of pecans.

• More than 50,000 Grand Pecan Balls, the Hotel's most popular dessert, are consumed each season.

• The Grand's famous Front Porch flowers include 2,500 geraniums in 260 planting boxes with seven tons of potting soil.

• Grand Hotel uses 5,200 geraniums, its trademark flower, in all its flower beds combined.

• One ton of bulbs are planted in the fall, including 25,000 tulips and 15,000 daffodils.

• More than 125,000 bedding plants (annuals) are used to create the many gardens on Grand Hotel grounds.