All About Michigan
Michigan is a constituent state of the United States of America. Although its 58,527 square miles (151,586 square kilometres) rank the state only 23rd in size nationally, the inclusion of Great Lakes waters over which it has jurisdiction raises the figure to 97,102 square miles (251,495 square kilometres), placing it 10th. The capital is Lansing. The state's name is derived from an Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian word meaning ''large lake.''
Michigan is the only one of the 49 continental states to be split into two large land segments: the sparsely populated but mineral-rich Upper Peninsula slices eastward from northern Wisconsin between Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula reaches northward from Indiana and Ohio. The two landmasses have been connected since 1957 by ''Big Mac,'' the five-mile (eight-kilometre) Mackinac Bridge across the Straits of Mackinac, which separate Lake Michigan on the west from Lake Huron on the east. Between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, in the southeast, the Lower Peninsula is separated from the Canadian province of Ontario by Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair and Detroit rivers.
Since its admission on Jan. 26, 1837, as the 26th state of the Union and the fourth to be carved from the Northwest Territory, Michigan has become a mainspring in the economic life of the United States; the name of its largest city, Detroit, has become a byword throughout the world for the American automotive industry. The state also has retained its prominence in agriculture, and, because of its many inland lakes, its borders on four of the five Great Lakes, and its many wilderness tracts, Michigan has evolved into one of the nation's leading tourist regions.
The mildly rolling countryside of Michigan appealed to the early agricultural settlers. Elevations are not high. The highest point in the Lower Peninsula, near Cadillac, rises only about 1,600 feet (488 metres). Elevations rise to over 1,900 feet only in the western Upper Peninsula. Several physical features of Michigan are appealing. The sand dunes on the Lake Michigan shore are used annually by thousands of vacationers, and state forests, parks, and wildlife areas, containing more than 4,000,000 acres (1,619,000 hectares) of wooded land, include varied landscapes that have helped Michigan to become a major tourist attraction of the Midwest.
Michigan's economy, following a period of dependence in the 19th century on mining and lumbering, began in the second decade of the 20th century to be dominated by the automobile industry. Despite contributions from agriculture, tourism, forestry, and industries, producing goods such as office furniture, cereal, oil, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, Michigan remained tied to the fortunes of the auto companies. The oil embargo of the late 1970s, combined with a dramatic increase in imports of foreign cars and a national economic recession, caused an economic crisis in Michigan. Between 1979 and 1982 the state's unemployment level climbed above 15 percent, the highest in the nation. Since then the auto industry has made a modest recovery, and Michigan's government and business leaders have initiated programs to expand the state's manufacturing base, to attract new high-technology firms, and to promote the service sector of the economy. Nevertheless, the automotive industry continues to dominate the economy, accounting for about one-third of all manufacturing employment and one-third of the total value added by manufacture.
Tourism brings Michigan millions of dollars annually, depending on the protection of forests, rivers, lakes, and shorelines from careless development and pollution. Michigan's 11,000 inland lakes range in size from a few acres to the 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) of Houghton Lake in the north central Lower Peninsula. The shores of many lakes are ringed with summer cottages, as are the shores of the Great Lakes in many places. Two recreational areas in the state include the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan. About 500 islands dot the lakes and rivers. Belle Isle, a public recreation centre, and Grosse Ile, largely residential, are well-known features of the Detroit River. Mackinac Island is a resort on which motor vehicles are prohibited. Isle Royale, a virgin wilderness of nearly 900 square miles, is a national park in western Lake Superior.
State and local governments have combined to give Michigan a modern system of state highways, county roads, and city streets. The interstate express system has been built largely with federal assistance. Air passenger service in Michigan began in 1926. Detroit Metropolitan Airport services millions of airline passengers annually, and there are some 20 other major airports throughout the state and several small commuter airlines. Much of the airfreight of metropolitan Detroit is handled at the Willow Run Airport, a facility constructed as a bomber plant during World War II. The waterways carry tremendous tonnage, with many of the state's exports shipped from Detroit's harbour. Ores and other bulk materials destined for the interstate trade are generally sent by water.
