Where does Mackinaw come from?

Mackinaw comes from Fort Mackinac, the United States, first documented in 1811.

Plate No. 081fabric

First documented: 1811
Origin: Fort Mackinac, Michigan, United States
Fiber: wool
Weave: dense napped wool, heavy check
Family: checks

Plate No. 081 · fabric

Mackinaw

Mackinaw is the cloth of the North American winter: a dense, heavily napped wool, woven thick enough to turn wind and wet snow, classically in bold checks. The story begins in 1811 at the Great Lakes fur posts, where a British captain short of greatcoats had blankets cut into coats for his men; the short double-breasted mackinaw coat kept the name and became the uniform of lumberjacks, hunters, and railroad men. Buffalo check mackinaw is the iconic form, the red and black coat of every logging camp photograph.

Illustration: a Great Lakes trading post in 1811, heavy checked blankets stacked on a counter, snowshoes on the wall, a frozen strait through the doorway — A Great Lakes trading post in 1811, heavy checked blankets stacked on a counter, snowshoes on the wall, a frozen strait through the doorway.

Named for

Named for Mackinac (Mackinaw) at the straits of the Great Lakes, where the heavy blanket cloth was traded and first cut into coats.

In the record

1811Blankets at the Mackinac trading post were cut into coats for British troops, by tradition the first mackinaws.

Common questions

What is Mackinaw made of?: Mackinaw is the cloth of the North American winter: a dense, heavily napped wool, woven thick enough to turn wind and wet snow, classically in bold checks.
Where does Mackinaw come from?: Mackinaw comes from Fort Mackinac, the United States, first documented in 1811.
What is Mackinaw named after?: Named for Mackinac (Mackinaw) at the straits of the Great Lakes, where the heavy blanket cloth was traded and first cut into coats.