The setting is the 1890's. The buildings are colorful and well maintained. As anyone would expect, there are lots of souvenir shops, restaurants, fudge and coffee shops, hotels and B & Bs.
But imagine this...
Mackinac Island claims to have unique "Mackinac fudge." So there are shops up and down the main street that make fudge all day long. The sweet aroma permeates the walkways and streets. It wafts out over the water and greets the ferry passengers. Mix this with the large number of horses that constantly plod through the town. There are tour and hotel carriages, wagons hauling merchandise, taxis and luggage carts. Many of the horses used on the island are big draft horses. Although any mess made by the horses is quickly cleaned up, there is no way to avoid the powerful grassy smell of equine excrement. So imagine the mixture of horses and unique fudge on a warm, humid day and you have a unique feature of the island never advertised anywhere.