Twenty Michigan facts

  1. The State of Michigan is located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America.
  2. The state Capitol with its majestic dome was built in Lansing in l879.
  3. Total Area: 11th among states, 250,465 sq km (96,705 sq mi)
  4. The name Michigan is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe word mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake".
  5. The first state police radio system in the world was established in 1929 by the Michigan State Police.
  6. A person in the state is never more than six miles (10 km) from a natural water source or more than 87.2 miles (140.3 km) from a Great Lakes shoreline.
  7. Eau Claire holds the annual International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship contest. The record set in 1988, was for spitting 72 feet, 7 1/2 inches.
  8. Michigan is the only state to consist entirely of two peninsulas.
  9. In 1939, the Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit manufactured the first air-conditioned car.
  10. Michigan was home to various Native American cultures for thousands of years before colonization by Europeans.
  11. Spanning five miles between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, The Mackinac Bridge is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world.
  12. Detroit is known as the car capital of the world.
  13. Michigan has the only floating post office in the world. The J.W. Westcott II delivers mail to ships still underway. 
  14. Rogers City boasts the world's largest limestone quarry.
  15. Singing sand can be found on the beaches of Grand Haven. The sand particles make a whistling sound as you walk upon them. 
  16. Although Michigan is often called the "Wolverine State" there are no longer any wolverines in Michigan.
  17. The first people in the nation to receive assigned phone numbers lived in Detroit in 1879. 
  18. The Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit manufactured the first air-conditioned car in 1939.
  19. The first soda pop made in the U.S., Vernor’s ginger ale, was created by accident in 1866 in Detroit.
  20. Michigan has 116 lighthouses and navigational lights.
  21. The world’s largest registered Holstein dairy herd is in Elsie.
  22. Michigan is a leading state in the ownership of recreational boats and in the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.
  23. Sault Ste. Marie was founded by Father Jacques Marquette in 1668. It is the third oldest remaining settlement in the United States.
  24. Henry Ford, who produced his first experimental car in 1893, founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903.
  25. The Great Lakes account for one-fifth of the world's surface freshwater supply.
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