Photo: Junfu Han ~ USA TODAY NETWORK
MACKINAC ISLAND, MI, April 1, 2025 ~ Jason St. Onge, Mackinac Island fire chief, tries to come up with a quirky April Fool‘s day post each year for the “Mackinac Island News and Views” Facebook page. Like the proposed construction of a monorail to the island or the renaming of Arch Rock to the Citi Arch Rock, as sponsored by Citibank. All not true.
However, his prank post from 2022 continues to cause misinformation, revolving around a large cable sticking out of the ground at the north end of the island, which for years has been used by freight barges as a tie-off so cargo can safely be unloaded. St. Onge posted a photo claiming this cable anchors the island to the bedrock in the straits, but broke free and the island had moved. He even included fake diagrams done by a friend and a little embellishment that the Army Corps of Engineers was on site to assist. The post went viral, even though none of it was true.
PODCAST:
April 1, 2025 ~ Mackinac Island Fire Chief Jason St. Onge once claimed Mackinac Island had broken free. He joins Marie Osborne to discuss his April Fool’s joke that continues to live on.
(CONTINUED) A friend of St. Onge said that when someone Googles “Mackinac Island anchored in place,” the story of the broken cable comes up as fact. Even Google AI repeats the story. WJR was unable to confirm the exact Google outcome, but Google shows several ‘news‘ stories appear to be repeating the bogus story.
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