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Some 300 waterfalls rush through Michigan's
Upper Peninsula!
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Mackinac Island was originally named
"Michilimackinac" by the French!
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Michigan is the leading state in ownership of
recreational boats and the sale of hunting and fishing
licenses!
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Michigan has more than 11,000 inland lakes and
more than 36,000 miles of streams!
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Michigan ranks second in the U.S. behind Alaska
with over 3,200 miles of shoreline!
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If you stand anywhere in Michigan, you are
within 85 miles of one of the Great Lakes!
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Michigan's name is derived from the Indian words
"Michi-Gama" meaning large lake!
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There are 90 species of trees native to
Michigan, more varieties than the entire content of Europe!
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Michigan contains 3.9 million acres of state
forestland
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Detroit is
known as the car capital of the world.
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Alpena is the
home of the world's largest cement plant.
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Rogers City
boasts the world's largest limestone quarry.
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Elsie is the
home of the world's largest registered Holstein dairy herd.
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Michigan is
first in the United States production of peat and magnesium compounds
and second in gypsum and iron ore.
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Colon is home
to the world's largest manufacture of magic supplies.
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The state
Capitol with its majestic dome was built in Lansing in l879.
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Although
Michigan is often called the "Wolverine State" there are no longer any
wolverines in Michigan.
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Michigan ranks
first in state boat registrations.
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The Packard
Motor Car Company in Detroit manufactured the first air-conditioned car
in 1939.
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The oldest
county (based on date of incorporation) is Wayne in 1815.
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Sault Ste.
Marie was founded by Father Jacques Marquette in 1668. It is the third
oldest remaining settlement in the United States.
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In 1817 the
University of Michigan was the first university established by any of
the states. Originally named Cathelepistemian and located in Detroit the
name was changed in 1821. The university moved to Ann Arbor in
1841.
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The city of
Novi was named from its designation as Stagecoach Stop # 6 or
No.VI.
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Michigan State
University has the largest single campus student body of any Michigan
university. It is the largest institution of higher learning in the
state and one of the largest universities in the country.
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Michigan State
University was founded in 1855 as the nation's first land-grant
university and served as the
prototype for 69 land-grant
institutions later established under the Morrill Act of 1862. It was the
first institution of higher learning in the
nation to teach scientific agriculture.
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The largest
village in Michigan is Caro.
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Michigan's
state stone, The Petoskey is the official state stone. It is found along
the shores of Lake Michigan.
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The Mackinac
Bridge is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. Connecting
the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, it spans 5 miles over the
Straits of Mackinac, which is where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet.
The Mighty Mac took 3 years to complete and was opened to traffic in
1957.
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Gerald R. Ford
grew up in Grand Rapids and became the 38th president of the United
States He attended the University of Michigan where he was a football
star. He served on a World War II aircraft carrier and afterward
represented Michigan in Congress for 24 years. He was also was an Eagle
Scout, the highest rank in Boy Scouts.
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The Kellogg
Company has made Battle Creek the Cereal Capital of the World. The
Kellogg brothers accidentally discovered the process for producing
flaked cereal products and sparked the beginning of the dry cereal
industry.
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The painted
turtle is Michigan's state reptile.
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The western
shore of Michigan has many sand dunes. The Sleeping Bear Dunes rise 460
feet above Lake Michigan. Living among the dunes is the dwarf lake iris
the official state wildflower.
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Vernors ginger
ale was created in Detroit and became the first soda pop made in the
United States. In 1862, pharmacist James Vernor was trying
to create a new beverage when he was called away to serve our country
in the Civil War. When he returned, 4 years later, the drink
he had stored in an oak case had acquired a delicious gingery
flavor.
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The Detroit Zoo
was the first zoo in America to feature cageless, open-exhibits that
allowed the animals more freedom to roam.
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Michigan is the
only place in the world with a floating post office. The J.W. Westcott
II is the only boat in the world that delivers mail to ships while they
are still underway. They have been operating for 125 years.
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Indian River is
the home of the largest crucifix in the world. It is called the Cross in
the Woods.
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Michigan has
the longest freshwater shoreline in the world.
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Michigan has
more shoreline than any other state except Alaska.
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The Ambassador
Bridge was named by Joseph Bower, the person credited with making the
bridge a reality, who thought the name "Detroit-Windsor
International Bridge" as too long and lacked emotional appeal. Bower
wanted to "symbolize the visible expression of friendship of two peoples
with like ideas and ideals."
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Michigan has
more than 11,000 inland lakes and more than 36,000 miles of
streams.
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Michigan has
116 lighthouses and navigational lights.
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Seul Choix
Point Lighthouse in Gulliver has been guiding ships since 1895. The
working light also functions as a museum, which houses early 1900s
furnishings and maritime artifacts.
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Forty of the
state's 83 counties adjoin at least one of the Great Lakes. Michigan is
the only state that touches four of the five Great Lakes.
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Standing
anywhere in the state a person is within 85 miles of one of the Great
Lakes.
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Michigan
includes 56,954 square miles of land area; 1,194 square miles of inland
waters; and 38,575 square miles of Great Lakes water area.
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Sault Ste.
Marie was established in 1668 making it the oldest town between the
Alleghenies and the Rockies.
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Michigan was
the first state to provide in its Constitution for the establishment of
public libraries.
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Michigan was
the first state to guarantee every child the right to tax-paid high
school education.
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Four flags have
flown over Michigan - French, English, Spanish and United States.
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Isle Royal Park
shelters one of the largest moose herds remaining in the United
States.
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Some of the
longest bulk freight carriers in the world operate on the Great Lakes.
Ore carriers 1,000 feet long sail Michigan's inland seas.
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The Upper
Michigan Copper Country is the largest commercial deposit of native
copper in the world.
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The 19
chandeliers in the Capitol in Lansing are one of a kind and designed
especially for the building by Tiffany's of New York. Weighing
between 800-900 pounds apiece they are composed of copper, iron and
pewter.
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The first auto
traffic tunnel built between two nations was the mile-long
Detroit-Windsor tunnel under the Detroit River.
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The world's
first international submarine railway tunnel was opened between Port
Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada in 1891.
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The nation's
first regularly scheduled air passage service began operation between
Grand Rapids and Detroit in 1926.
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In 1879 Detroit
telephone customers were first in the nation to be assigned phone
numbers to facilitate handling calls.
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In 1929, the
Michigan State Police established the first state police radio system in
the world.
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Grand Rapids is
home to the 24-foot Leonardo da Vinci horse, called Il Gavallo, it is
the largest equestrian bronze sculpture in the Western
Hemisphere.
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Michigan ranks third, nationally, in apple
production with 1 billion lbs. and leads the nation in Jonathans and
Northern Spys; the Apple Blossom is the state
flower.
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13.2 million lbs. of fresh carrots, the third
highest production in the country.
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85.5 million lbs. of celery, the second largest
grower in the nation.
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185 million lbs. of cherries, with 75% of the
U.S.'s red tart cherries grown in Michigan.
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Field corn (Michigan grows 2.2 million acres) is
used for livestock feed, edible products, corn meal, oil, syrup and
breakfast cereals.
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738 floriculture growers makes Michigan fourth
in the nation in value of wholesale products.
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It takes 40-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon
of 44,000 gallons of maple syrup made in Michigan.
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Redhaven peaches, which were developed at MSU in
the 1940s is now the most widely planted peach in the world.
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Michigan has 2000 swine operations totaling 458
million lbs. of pork in the market.
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Meat and wool are obtained from the 32,500 sheep
and lamb in the state.
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A typical 1,000 lb. steer results in 55 lbs. of
round steak, 87 lbs. of T-bone, porterhouse and sirloin steaks, 100 lbs.
of ground beef and the remaining in
miscellaneous cuts such as rump roasts, ribs and stew meats; Michigan
produces about 105,000 beef cows annually.
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43% of all cultivated blueberries in the U.S.
come from Michigan; 72 million lbs.
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Michigan now has 26 commercial wineries who make
wine from Native American, vitis vinifera and hybrid grape
varieties.
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Michigan has 32 registered turkey growers who
raise an estimated 8 million birds.
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Products that are made from the 1.95 million
acres of soybeans are biodegradable and nontoxic.
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It only takes 12 sugar beets to make 1 lb. of
sugar that is identical to sugar from sugar cane.
