Michigan’s Mackinac Island has banned the use of motorized vehicle transportation since 1898, so residents and visitors were transfixed when they saw Vice President Mike Pence’s eight-car motorcade roll down the streets Saturday.

The island disallows any use of motor power except for emergency vehicles, snowmobiles, and government-owned service vehicles. Most people on the small island surrounded by Lake Huron walk or bike, with horse-drawn carriages also present.



Vice President Mike Pence leaves the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island Saturday in an eight-vehicle motorcade — the island’s first ever. pic.twitter.com/p0IgewX09K — Paul Egan (@paulegan4) September 21, 2019



Pence used the motorcade to travel from the Mackinac Island Airport to the hotel where he spoke at the Michigan Republican Party’s biennial leadership conference, the first sitting vice president to speak at the conference in its more than six-decade history.

Only one sitting president, Gerald Ford, has visited Mackinac Island while in office, and he used a horse-drawn carriage to get around. Other presidents like George H.W. Bush, Harry Truman, Bill Clinton, and John F. Kennedy visited before and/or after their presidencies and also traveled via horse.

Michigan is a crucial state for President Trump to win in 2020. He won the state’s 16 electoral votes by a thin 0.23% margin.