Mackinac Island and fudge – the place and the product have been inextricably linked for more than one-hundred years.  Along with riding bikes, taking a carriage tour and visiting the fort, buying a box of fudge has been a “must-do” Mackinac Island activity since the Roaring Twenties.  The success of this sweet souvenir spawned a thriving industry housed in more than a dozen quaint fudge shops in the island’s small village. Fudge was not invented at Mackinac, but it was here that a particular style of fudge gained great popularity that spread across the nation.

So, to repeat the often-asked question: “Where did this fudge thing come from?”  The story begins many decades ago as Mackinac Island was transforming itself from a fur and fish market into a popular summer resort. Henry Murdick came to Mackinac Island in 1887 to construct awnings for the newly constructed Grand Hotel. Once he completed that job, he opened Murdick’s Candy Kitchen on the water side of Main Street with the help of his wife Sara. Here they made a wide variety of treats to satisfy sweet-toothed summer tourists including hand-dipped chocolates, nut brittles, pulled taffy, and pecan pralines.  But it was fudge that drew the greatest interest because of the creamy taste and dramatic process of making the candy on large marble slabs.  

Harold May, an accomplished candy maker, became the chief candy chef for Murdick in 1930. In the mid-1940s, Harold and his wife Ethel, an excellent chocolate dipper, purchased the Murdick business and renamed the store “May’s Candy Shop.” 

Over the years many other candy makers entered (and many left) the fudge business including the Chicago Candy Kitchen, Miss English’s Candy Store, Alex “Candy” Ferguson, Angell and Phelps, Heppe Brothers, Selma Dufina, Jim Marshall, Verna Murdick, Mary Couls, and Harry Ryba. In 1956 Jerome Murdick’s reopened “Murdick’s Candy Kitchen” which he sold to Bob Benser in 1967. That same year Ray Summerfield opened Suzanne’s Fudge which he sold to Frank Nephew (Joann’s Fudge) two years later. More recent additions include Kilwin’s Candy, Sander’s Fudge and Ice Cream Shop, and the Murray Hotel Fudge Company.

Today, hundreds of thousands of pounds of fudge are sold on Mackinac Island each summer. Candy makers continue to experiment with new products, perhaps looking for the next candy sensation, or maybe to just break up the monotony of making so much fudge.  But at the end of the day, it is fudge – creamy, rich and manufactured with dramatic flair – that continues to be Mackinac Island’s number one sweet souvenir.

To learn more about Mackinac’s fudge history, read Fudge: Mackinac’s Sweet Souvenir, by Phil Porter, available at Mackinac State Historic Parks online bookstore.

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