🚗Michigan

The Great Lakes State · The Wolverine State

Michigan is the only U.S. state made up of two separate peninsulas — the Lower Peninsula shaped like a mitten, and the Upper Peninsula wedged between Lakes Superior and Michigan. It touches four of the five Great Lakes and has more shoreline than any state except Alaska. For most of the 20th century, Michigan was the automotive capital of the world, with the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler — headquartered in metro Detroit.

Two Peninsulas

Michigan is divided by the Straits of Mackinac into the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula. The two were connected in 1957 by the Mackinac Bridge, a five-mile suspension bridge that remains one of the longest in the Western Hemisphere. The Upper Peninsula — "the U.P." — was added to Michigan as a consolation prize in 1837 after Michigan lost a border dispute with Ohio over the Toledo Strip. The U.P. turned out to be rich in iron and copper.

Birthplace of the Auto Industry

Henry Ford produced the Model T at his Highland Park plant starting in 1908 and introduced the moving assembly line in 1913. The innovation cut the time to build a car from 12 hours to 90 minutes and made the automobile affordable to the middle class. General Motors was founded in Flint in 1908; Chrysler in Detroit in 1925. At their peak, Michigan auto plants employed hundreds of thousands.

Motown

In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records in a small Detroit house he called "Hitsville U.S.A." Motown produced some of the most influential American music of the 20th century — Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Jackson 5, the Temptations. The house is now a museum.

Great Lakes Geography

Michigan touches Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Erie — all four of the Upper Great Lakes. The Great Lakes together hold about 21% of the world's surface fresh water. Michigan has more than 11,000 inland lakes, and no point in the state is more than 85 miles from a Great Lake shoreline. Isle Royale National Park, on Lake Superior, is one of the most remote national parks in the lower 48.

Michigan Facts

• Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state — about 120.
• Battle Creek is home to Kellogg's and is sometimes called the "Cereal Capital of the World."
• Gerald Ford, the 38th president, grew up in Grand Rapids.
• The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was founded in 1817 — 20 years before Michigan became a state.
• Michigan is the only state whose two halves are separated by water and connected by a bridge.

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