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Michigan

Michigan is a state in the United States. Its U.S. postal abbreviation is MI (old style: Mich.). The name is derived from Lake Michigan, which in turn is believed to come from the Chippewa word meicigama, meaning "great water."

The state is known as the birthplace of the automobile industry. However, it also has a large tourist industry. Destinations like Traverse City, Mackinac Island, and the entire Upper Peninsula draw vacationers, hunters, and nature lovers from all over the U.S. and Canada. Michigan has the longest coastline of any state except Alaska and more recreational boats than any other state.

USS Michigan was named in honor of the state.

An individual from Michigan is called a Michigander or Michiganian. A resident of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the UP) is often called a Yooper (and in turn, residents of the lower peninsula may be jokingly referred to as trolls because they live "below the Mackinac Bridge".)

Michigan has 116 lighthouses. The first lighthouses in Michigan were built between 1818 and 1822. They were built to project light at night and to serve as a landmark during the day to safely guide the freighters traveling the Great Lakes.

Michigan has the most registered boats (over 1 million) of any state in the Union. Although most famous for its automotive industry, over half of Michigan's land is forested, much of it quite remote.

• State nicknames include the Wolverine State, Great Lakes State, Mitten State, and Winter Water Wonderland.
• The state motto, Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice is Latin for "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you", a paraphrase of a statement made by British architect Sir Christopher Wren about his influence on London.
• The state stone, the Petoskey stone (Hexagonaria pericarnata), is composed of fossilized diatoms from long ago when the middle of the continent was covered with a shallow sea.
• The state gem chlorastrolite, literally the green star stone, also known as the Isle Royale greenstone is found on Isle Royale and the Keweenaw.
• The state wildflower, the Dwarf Lake Iris (Iris lacustris), is a federal-listed threatened species.
• The state soil, Kalkaska Sand, ranges in color from black to yellowish brown, covers nearly a million acres (4,000 km²) in 29 counties.
• Michigan is the only state composed of two separate peninsulas.

History

Once a thriving lumber capital and supplier of iron and copper minerals, Michigan's declining natural resources gave way at the turn of the twentieth century. The birth of the automotive industry with Henry Ford's first plant in the Highland Park suburb of Detroit, marked the beginning of a new era in personal transportation that permanently changed the socio-economic climate of America. Many automotive manufacturing plants remain, however, Detroit lost its grandeur after World War II, as automotive companies abandoned huge industrial parks in the area for the cheaper labor found in Southern U.S. and offshore plants.

Early European history

• 1622 Étienne Brûlé and his fellow explorers from Grenoble, France, were probably the first white men to see Lake Superior.
• 1668 Père (Father) Jacques Marquette establishes Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, first European settlement in Michigan
• 1701 Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac, with his lieutenant Alphonse de Tonty, established a trading post on the Detroit River which they named Fort Pontchartrain; present site of Detroit.

U.S. history

• 1805 Michigan Territory was created, with Detroit designated as the seat of government. William Hull appointed as governor. Detroit was destroyed by fire.
• 1828 Territorial Capitol was built at Detroit at a cost of $24,500.
• 1835 First Constitutional Convention. Stevens T. Mason inaugurated as the first Governor. Stevens T. Mason started a minor conflict with Ohio over the city of Toledo, (now Toledo, Ohio) known as the Toledo War the same year: Ohio was awarded Toledo but Michigan was given a majority of Michigan's upper peninsula.
• 1837 Admitted as a free state into the union (the 26th state), it was admitted with the slave state of Arkansas

Major historical events

• January 26, 1837 Michigan became the 26th US State.
• 1838 Patriot War
• 1847 A law was passed by the State Legislature to locate the State Capital "in the township of Lansing, in the county of Ingham."
• 1879 New State Capitol dedicated in Lansing. The structure cost $1,510,130. 1890s and 1900s Ford, Chrysler and General Motors founded in southeastern Michigan.
• 1937 Flint Sit-down Strike ends with official recognition of the United Auto Workers by General Motors.
• 1957 Five-mile long Mackinac Bridge opened November 1.
• 1974 Gerald R. Ford of Grand Rapids became the 38th President of the United States.
• 1976 Throw away bottles banned by referendum vote.
• 1987 Michigan celebrated 150 years of statehood.

Government

• Capital: Lansing
• Law/Government of state
  • governor -- current, previous governors
    • Current: Jennifer Granholm
• Michigan Legislature -- bicameral
  • Michigan State House of Representatives
  • Michigan Senate
• structure of state judicary
• state constitution
• Referendum and Voter Initiative: Michigan's constitution provides for voter initiative and referendum (Article II, § 9 [ [1] ] ), defined as "the power to propose laws and to enact and reject laws, called the initiative, and the power to approve or reject laws enacted by the legislature, called the referendum. The power of initiative extends only to laws which the legislature may enact under this constitution."

Michigan counties and townships are statutory units of government, meaning that they have only those powers expressly provided or fairly implied by state law. Cities and villages are vested with home rule powers, meaning that they can do almost anything not prohibited by law.

There are two types of townships in Michigan: general law and charter. Charter township status was created by the state legislature in 1947 and grants additional powers and stream-lined administration in order to provide greater protection against annexation by a city. As of April 2001, there were 127 charter townships in Michigan.

Geography

Michigan borders Indiana and Ohio to the south, and Wisconsin to the southwest of the Upper Peninsula. Michigan also borders Minnesota, Illinois and Ontario but only on water boundaries in the Great Lakes system. The highest point is Mount Arvon in the Upper Peninsula at 1979 feet (603 m). The highest point in the Lower Peninsula is Briar Hill at 1705 feet (520 meters).

Michigan consists of two peninsulas:

• the Lower Peninsula
• and the Upper Peninsula

The Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten and is 277 miles long from north to south and 195 miles from east to west. The Upper Peninsula (often called simply "The U.P.") is as big as Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island combined, but has less than 320,000 inhabitants, who are sometimes called "Yoopers" and whose speech has been heavily influenced by the large number of Scandinavian and Canadian immigrants who settled the area during the mining boom of the late 1800's.

These two sections are connected only by the Mackinac Bridge -- the third longest suspension bridge in the world. The two peninsulas are surrounded by an extensive Great Lakes shoreline. Other than Alaska, Michigan has the longest shoreline of any state -- 2,242 miles (and another 879 miles if islands are included). This equals the length of the Atlantic Coast, from Maine to Florida. The Great Lakes which touch the two peninsulas of Michigan are Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. No point in Michigan is more than 6 miles from an inland lake or more than 85 miles from one of the Great Lakes, and the state has more than 11,000 inland lakes and more than 36,000 miles of rivers and streams.

National parks

• Isle Royale National Park
• Keweenaw National Historical Park
• Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
• Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
• Father Marquette National Memorial

Economy

• State income
• Major industries/products
  • Automobiles (General Motors, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler), Amway, Cereal (Kellogg's), Copper, Furniture (Steelcase, Herman Miller), Iron
• state taxes

Demographics

• Michigan Resident Population (2000 Census): 9,938,444
• racial/ethnic makeup of state
• religious makeup of state

Important Cities and Towns

• Detroit (Motor City, Motown)
• Grand Rapids (The Furniture City)
• Lansing (the state capital)
• Traverse City (the Cherry Capital of the World)

Colleges and Universities

Professional Sports Teams

• Detroit Tigers, Major League Baseball
• Detroit Lions, National Football League
• Detroit Red Wings, National Hockey League
• Detroit Pistons, National Basketball Association
• Detroit Shock, Women's National Basketball Association
• Minor League baseball teams
  • West Michigan Whitecaps
  • Battle Creek Yankees (formerly the Michigan Battle Cats)
  • Lansing Lugnuts

Other notable sports teams

• Detroit Fury, Arena Football League
• Detroit Demolition, National Women's Football Association
• Grand Rapids Rampage, Arena Football League
• Grand Rapids Griffins, American Hockey League
• Muskegon Fury, United Hockey League
• Port Huron Beacons, United Hockey League
• Flint Generals, United Hockey League