100 Fun Facts About Michigan

Which city is the capital of Michigan?

The capital moved there from Detroit in 1847 to put it somewhere more central and safer from British Canada.

What are Michigan's two main land masses called?

Michigan's two land masses are the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, separated by the Straits of Mackinac and linked by the Mackinac Bridge since 1957.

The Mackinac Bridge, which joins Michigan's two peninsulas, is roughly how long?

The Mackinac Bridge is about 5 miles long, 26,372 feet end to end; it opened in 1957 and hosts the Labor Day Bridge Walk each year.

Michigan residents show where they live by holding up a hand because the Lower Peninsula is shaped like what?

The Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten, so residents point to a spot on their palm; the Upper Peninsula is shown with the other hand turned sideways above it.

How many of the five Great Lakes touch Michigan?

Only Lake Ontario misses it; the state also borders Lake St. Clair, giving it 3,288 miles of freshwater coastline.

Which of the five Great Lakes is the deepest?

Lake Superior is the deepest of the Great Lakes, reaching about 1,333 feet (406 metres) at its deepest point; it forms the Upper Peninsula's entire northern shore.

Michigan's name most likely comes from an Ojibwe word, mishigami, meaning what?

Mishigami is usually rendered as 'large water' or 'great lake' in Ojibwe, a fitting name for a state defined by its Great Lakes shoreline.

Michigan became a state in January 1837. Which number state was it?

It entered as a free state, and only after Congress made it give up the Toledo Strip to Ohio.

As a consolation for losing the Toledo Strip to Ohio in the 1830s, what did Michigan receive?

Michigan received the western Upper Peninsula as compensation for ceding the Toledo Strip to Ohio; the supposedly worthless land held some of North America's richest mineral deposits.

Roughly what share of Michigan's population lives in the Upper Peninsula?

About 3% of Michiganders, roughly 300,000 of 10 million, live in the Upper Peninsula, even though it holds nearly a third of the state's land area.

Residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula are known by what nickname?

Yoopers is simply 'U.P.-ers' said aloud; Merriam-Webster added the word to its dictionary in 2014.

Which handheld meat pie, brought by Cornish miners, is the Upper Peninsula's signature food?

Finnish immigrants adopted it because it resembled their own piirakka; Calumet holds an annual Pasty Fest.

What is Michigan's official state bird?

The American robin became Michigan's state bird in 1931 after a Michigan Audubon Society contest; the rare Kirtland's warbler has since been proposed as a replacement.

Michigan's state flower, adopted in 1897, is the blossom of which fruit tree?

The apple blossom was adopted as Michigan's state flower in 1897; Michigan is one of the country's largest apple-growing states.

What is the Petoskey stone, Michigan's official state stone?

The Petoskey stone is fossilised coral, Hexagonaria, about 350 million years old; its six-sided pattern shows only when wet or polished, and it is named for an Odawa chief.

Which Ice Age animal is Michigan's official state fossil?

Mastodon bones turn up regularly in Michigan farm fields; the state adopted the fossil in 2002.

What is Michigan's official state tree?

The eastern white pine, the giant of Michigan's 1800s lumber boom, was made the state tree in 1955.

Michigan's Latin motto translates as 'If you seek a pleasant peninsula...' — what?

The motto 'Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice', if you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you, appears on the state seal adopted in 1835.

Michigan's official state reptile, adopted in 1995 after a schoolchildren's campaign, is which animal?

The painted turtle, common in Michigan ponds and marshes, became the state reptile in 1995 after a campaign by elementary school students.

Which French officer founded Detroit in 1701?

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in July 1701; the settlement's name comes from the French word for 'strait'.

Detroit is the only major US city from which you look in which direction to see Canada?

Windsor, Ontario lies south of downtown Detroit across the Detroit River, which is why Detroit is the one major US city that looks south into Canada.

Why is the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit to Windsor unusual among major border crossings?

The Ambassador Bridge is privately owned by the Moroun family's bridge company; it opened in 1929 and carries about a quarter of US-Canada merchandise trade.

Which company joined General Motors and Ford as Detroit's historic Big Three automakers?

Chrysler, founded by Walter Chrysler in 1925, completed the Big Three alongside General Motors and Ford; it has been part of Stellantis since 2021.

Ford's Model T was nicknamed what?

The Model T was nicknamed the Tin Lizzie; more than 15 million were built over its 19-year run from 1908, and from 1914 to 1925 it came only in black.

In 1914 Henry Ford stunned industry by paying his workers how much per day?

Ford's $5 day, announced in January 1914, roughly doubled the typical $2.34 wage for a nine-hour shift, which was cut to eight hours at the same time.

The world's first mile of concrete road was laid in 1909 on which Detroit thoroughfare?

It cost $14,000; the same avenue now hosts the Woodward Dream Cruise, a classic-car parade drawing a million spectators each August.

Berry Gordy Jr. founded which record label in Detroit in 1959?

Motown, a mash-up of 'motor' and 'town', grew from Tamla Records, which Gordy started in January 1959 with an $800 loan from his family's savings fund.

What is Berry Gordy's original Detroit label headquarters, now a museum, known as?

Gordy's house and studio at 2648 West Grand Boulevard was dubbed Hitsville U.S.A.; the label recorded there until moving to Los Angeles in 1972, and the building became a museum in 1985.

Which pop star, born in Bay City, Michigan in 1958, won a Michigan dance scholarship?

Madonna was born in Bay City on 16 August 1958, grew up in Rochester Hills and gave up a University of Michigan dance scholarship to move to New York in 1978.

Eminem's 2002 film is named after which Detroit-area road?

8 Mile Road, the boundary between the city and its northern suburbs, gave the film its title; its song 'Lose Yourself' won the 2003 Oscar for Best Original Song.

Battle Creek, Michigan is nicknamed 'Cereal City' as the home of which company?

Kellogg's grew out of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where the Kellogg brothers stumbled on flaked cereal from stale cooked wheat in 1894; W. K. Kellogg founded the company in 1906, and rival C. W. Post set up across town.

Vernors, created by a Detroit pharmacist in 1866, claims to be America's oldest surviving what?

Vernors ginger ale, created by pharmacist James Vernor, is aged in oak barrels; a 'Boston cooler' blends it with vanilla ice cream.

Detroit-style pizza is baked in rectangular steel pans that were originally made for what?

Buddy's Rendezvous began baking it in 1946 in blue steel auto parts drip trays borrowed from local plants; cheese pushed to the pan's edge caramelises into a crisp 'frico' crust.

Faygo, the Detroit soda founded in 1907, based its first flavours on what?

Bakers Ben and Perry Feigenson based Faygo's first flavours, fruit punch, strawberry and grape, on their cake frosting recipes; Redpop and Rock & Rye came later.

Gerber began producing strained baby food in 1928 in which small Michigan town?

Daniel Gerber's family cannery in Fremont began selling strained baby food in 1928, after his wife Dorothy pushed him to make it commercially.

On the resort island in the Straits of Mackinac, what has been banned since 1898?

The island banned motor vehicles in 1898 after early cars spooked its horses; visitors move by horse, carriage or bicycle and are nicknamed 'fudgies'.

The 1980 romance 'Somewhere in Time' was filmed at which Michigan resort spot?

Its Grand Hotel dates from 1887; the island's Fort Mackinac was built by the British in 1780.

Traverse City calls itself the world capital of which fruit?

Its National Cherry Festival each July swells a town of 15,000 to about half a million people.

In the Ojibwe legend behind Sleeping Bear Dunes, what did the bear's two cubs become?

In the legend the two cubs drowned swimming across the lake and became the two Manitou Islands, while the mother bear waiting on shore became the Sleeping Bear dune.

Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior is famous for a decades-long study of which two animals?

The study of Isle Royale's wolves and moose began in 1958 and is the world's longest continuous predator-prey study; wolves were reintroduced from the mainland starting in 2018.

Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior was the first area in the US to receive which designation, in 1966?

Pictured Rocks became the first National Lakeshore in October 1966; its 200-foot sandstone cliffs are streaked by iron, manganese and other minerals leaching out of the rock.

Tahquamenon Falls in the Upper Peninsula is nicknamed 'Root Beer Falls' because of what?

Tannins from the cedar, spruce and hemlock swamps upstream turn the water brown and whip up a root-beer-like foam; the Upper Falls drop about 50 feet across a 200-foot-wide brink.

The Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie let ships move between Lake Superior and which other Great Lake?

The St. Marys River drops 21 feet there; the first locks opened in 1855 and about 10,000 ships pass each year.

How many crew died when the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a November 1975 storm?

All 29 crew died and no bodies were recovered; the ship's bell, raised in 1995, hangs in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point.

The Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan's northern tip, boomed in the 1840s on which metal?

The Keweenaw's native copper, found in nearly pure metallic form, drove America's first big mining rush from 1843; the peninsula also averages over 200 inches of snow a year.

Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, the largest stadium in the United States, is nicknamed what?

Michigan Stadium has been called the Big House since the 1980s, when television broadcasts popularised the name; it regularly draws home crowds above 100,000.

Which future president played centre on Michigan's undefeated 1932 and 1933 football teams?

Gerald Ford, born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha and raised in Grand Rapids, was the Wolverines' most valuable player in 1934 and the only president never elected to either the presidency or vice-presidency.

Michigan State University, founded in 1855, was the country's first college of what kind?

Founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, it was the nation's first agricultural college and the model for the land-grant universities of the 1862 Morrill Act.

Since 1934 the Detroit Lions have traditionally hosted an NFL game on which holiday?

The Lions' Thanksgiving Day game began in 1934, when owner George Richards scheduled it to draw a crowd and a national radio audience; the series paused only for World War II.

Detroit Red Wings fans throw which sea creature onto the ice during the playoffs?

The Legend of the Octopus dates from 1952, when its eight legs matched the eight playoff wins then needed for the Stanley Cup; fish-market owners the Cusimano brothers threw the first one.

The Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s, who won back-to-back NBA titles, were known by what nickname?

The 'Bad Boys' of Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman won the 1989 and 1990 NBA titles with a bruising defence; the franchise began in 1941 as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons.

Which baseball legend, acquired in 1905, starred for the Detroit Tigers?

Ty Cobb joined the Tigers in August 1905 at 18 and stayed through 1926, retiring with the highest career batting average in major-league history.

Holland, Michigan, founded by Dutch settlers in 1847, is famous for which May festival?

Tulip Time, held each May since 1929, sees millions of tulips bloom across Holland, whose De Zwaan windmill was shipped over from the Netherlands in 1964.

Bronner's in Frankenmuth, Michigan, is billed as the world's largest store selling what?

Bronner's, opened by Wally Bronner in 1945, sells Christmas decorations all year round and bills itself as the world's largest Christmas store; Frankenmuth itself was settled by Franconian Lutherans in 1845.

Grand Rapids, Michigan was in 1945 the first US city to add what to its drinking water?

Grand Rapids began adding fluoride to its water on 25 January 1945 in a landmark trial that sharply cut children's tooth decay; the city was long nicknamed Furniture City.

Gibson guitars was founded in 1902 in which Michigan city, also once home to Checker cabs and Upjohn?

The city's Kalamazoo Promise pays public-school graduates' tuition at any Michigan public college.

The 2014 water crisis in Flint, Michigan began when the city switched its water supply to which source?

Officials skipped corrosion control, so lead leached from old pipes; a federal emergency was declared in January 2016.

Which is Michigan's largest inland lake by surface area?

Houghton Lake, in Roscommon County, covers about 20,000 acres, making it Michigan's largest inland lake; it is also shallow, averaging under 10 feet deep.

Where does Michigan rank among US states by population, with about 10.1 million people?

Michigan ranked 10th in the 2020 census with 10,077,331 people; by total area, counting its Great Lakes waters, it is the biggest state east of the Mississippi.

Which US state borders Michigan's Upper Peninsula by land?

Wisconsin is the Upper Peninsula's only land neighbour, with a border that follows the Menominee and Montreal rivers for much of its length; the Lower Peninsula's land neighbours are Ohio and Indiana.

How many inland lakes does Michigan have, according to the state's count?

No point in the state is more than six miles from an inland lake or 85 miles from a Great Lake.

Detroit's rival coney-dog stands American and Lafayette were both founded by immigrants from which country?

Brothers Gust and William Keros, immigrants from Greece, founded American Coney Island in 1917 and Lafayette next door in 1924; the dog comes with beef-heart chili, mustard and onions.

The technological university in Houghton, in the Keweenaw, was founded in 1885 under what name?

It opened in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School to train engineers for the Keweenaw's mines, and became Michigan Technological University in 1964.

Michigan's state capital is unusual among US state capitals for what reason?

The capital is not a county seat; nearby Mason holds the Ingham County seat, while the State Capitol building itself was completed in 1878.

The Mackinac Bridge was designed by which engineer, applying lessons from the Tacoma Narrows collapse?

David B. Steinman designed the Mackinac Bridge with a deep, open-grid deck to resist wind after the 1940 Tacoma Narrows failure; its 3,800-foot main span opened in 1957.

Michigan's official state gem, chlorastrolite, is better known by what name?

Chlorastrolite, the Isle Royale greenstone, is a green pumpellyite with a turtle-shell pattern found mainly on Isle Royale and the Keweenaw; it became the state gem in 1972.

The University of Michigan was founded in 1817 in which city, before moving to Ann Arbor?

The Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, was chartered in Detroit on 26 August 1817, twenty years before the move to Ann Arbor in 1837.

How many students took the University of Michigan's first classes in Ann Arbor in 1841?

Seven students, six freshmen and one sophomore, took the first classes from two professors in the newly finished Mason Hall in 1841.

In which year did Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor open?

Michigan Stadium opened on 1 October 1927 with 72,000 seats, built for about $950,000 with footings already laid so it could later grow past 100,000.

Which coach's 1901 'Point-a-Minute' Michigan team won the first Rose Bowl game?

Fielding Yost's 1901 'Point-a-Minute' team outscored opponents 550-0 and beat Stanford 49-0 in the first Rose Bowl game on 1 January 1902.

Which Michigan student wrote the fight song 'The Victors' in 1898?

Louis Elbel, a music student, wrote 'The Victors' on the train home after Michigan beat Chicago in November 1898 to clinch the Western Conference title.

How many Michigan players won the Heisman Trophy in the 20th century?

Three: Tom Harmon in 1940, Desmond Howard in 1991 and Charles Woodson in 1997, the first primarily defensive player to win it.

Coach Fritz Crisler brought Michigan's famous winged helmet design in 1938 from which university?

Crisler first used the winged helmet at Princeton in 1935 and brought the design to Michigan in 1938, partly to help passers pick out receivers downfield.

The Little Brown Jug, college football's oldest rivalry trophy, is contested between Michigan and which team?

The rivalry for the jug started with a 1903 game; Michigan first played Minnesota in 1892.

The 'Ten Year War' of 1969 to 1978 pitted Michigan coach Bo Schembechler against which Ohio State coach?

Woody Hayes, Schembechler's former boss at Ohio State, went 4-5-1 against his protégé in the Ten Year War, which decided the Big Ten title almost every season.

Which future NFL quarterback played for Michigan from 1995 to 1999 before going 199th in the draft?

Tom Brady went 199th overall to the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 draft after starting for Michigan in 1998 and 1999.

In 1871 Sarah Killgore became the first US woman with a law degree to do what?

Sarah Killgore graduated from Michigan's law school in March 1871 and was admitted to the state bar that year, the first US woman to hold both a law degree and bar admission.

Through the 2023 season, how many Big Ten football championships had Michigan won?

Michigan's 2023 Big Ten football title was its 45th, the most of any conference member; the Wolverines' first came in 1898.

In which Michigan city did the Republican Party hold its first statewide meeting in 1854?

Some 1,500 delegates met 'Under the Oaks' in Jackson on 6 July 1854, adopted the Republican name and platform and nominated a full state ticket.

Roughly how many lighthouses does Michigan have, more than any other US state?

Michigan's lighthouses, about 130 to 150 depending on what is counted, are the most of any state; they line the Great Lakes shores of both peninsulas.

Which Grand Rapids retailer opened what is called America's first hypermarket in 1962?

Meijer's first Thrifty Acres, opened in Grand Rapids in June 1962, put a full grocery and a department store under one roof, the model later followed by supercenters nationwide.

Tom Monaghan founded Domino's Pizza in 1960 in which Michigan city?

Tom Monaghan and his brother Jim bought DomiNick's, a pizzeria in Ypsilanti, with a $500 down payment in 1960; within eight months Jim swapped his half for the delivery Volkswagen Beetle.

Which Lansing-born guard led Michigan State to the 1979 NCAA title over Larry Bird?

Earvin 'Magic' Johnson got his nickname from a local sportswriter after a 36-point, 18-rebound, 16-assist game at 15; he scored 24 in the 1979 final against Bird's Indiana State.

Stevie Wonder was born in 1950 in which Michigan city?

Stevie Wonder was born Stevland Judkins in Saginaw on 13 May 1950, six weeks premature; retinopathy of prematurity, worsened by incubator oxygen, cost him his sight.

Which Odawa war chief laid siege to Fort Detroit for five months in 1763?

Pontiac's plan to seize Fort Detroit by surprise on 7 May 1763 was foiled by an informer; the siege ran from May to October, and the wider uprising helped prompt the Proclamation of 1763.

Which city, nearly surrounded by Detroit, elected an all-Muslim city council and mayor in 2021?

Hamtramck, once the heart of the region's Polish community, elected a Yemeni-American mayor and an all-Muslim council in November 2021 after decades of Yemeni and Bangladeshi immigration.

Diego Rivera's 1932-33 frescoes of the River Rouge plant fill a court at which museum?

The Detroit Industry Murals fill the Detroit Institute of Arts' Rivera Court; Edsel Ford paid about $20,000 for the commission, and they became a National Historic Landmark in 2014.

In which Michigan city did Herbert Dow found his bromine-from-brine chemical firm in 1897?

Herbert Dow founded the Dow Chemical Company in Midland in 1897 to extract bromine from the area's underground brine, using an electrolytic process he had patented.

The bus where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat sits in which Michigan museum?

The Henry Ford in Dearborn bought the 1948 GM bus at auction in 2001 and restored it; the museum also holds the Lincoln assassination chair and JFK's presidential limousine.

Ford's mile-long Willow Run assembly line built which heavy bomber during World War II?

Willow Run turned out B-24 Liberators at a peak rate of one an hour in 1944, 8,685 in all; Albert Kahn's plant was billed as the world's largest room.

Little Caesars in 1959 and Kmart in 1962 were both founded in which Detroit suburb?

Mike Ilitch opened the first Little Caesars in a Garden City strip mall in May 1959; S. S. Kresge opened the first Kmart store in the same suburb on 1 March 1962.

In 1846 Michigan became the first English-speaking government to abolish what?

Michigan abolished the death penalty for murder in 1846, effective 1847, keeping it only for treason until 1963; the one execution since was federal, at Milan in 1938.

Which species did Michigan specify in 1988 as its official state fish?

Lawmakers named just 'the trout' in 1965; the 1988 act settled on the brook trout, a species native to the state's cold streams.

Settled by the French in 1668, which is the oldest city in Michigan?

Jesuits Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquette founded the mission at Sault Ste. Marie in 1668, making it the oldest European settlement in Michigan and one of the oldest in the Midwest.

Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, the Belleville Three, invented which genre?

The Belleville Three created techno in the 1980s, fusing Kraftwerk's electronics with Parliament-style funk; Atkins is hailed as the genre's 'Godfather'.

The Michigan–Michigan State football winner takes home a statue of which folk figure?

Governor G. Mennen Williams donated the Paul Bunyan lumberjack statue in 1953, the Spartans' first season of Big Ten football; Michigan's Fritz Crisler reportedly wanted to refuse it.

What is the highest point in Michigan?

Mount Arvon in Baraga County, in the Upper Peninsula, rises 1,979 feet; a 1982 survey found it a foot higher than nearby Mount Curwood, long thought the state's summit.

Since 1976, Lake Superior State University has published a New Year's list of what?

The Banished Words List began in 1976 as a publicity stunt by LSSU's Unicorn Hunters, led by PR director W. T. Rabe, who also staged an annual snowman burning.

Where in Lake Michigan did James Strang reign as crowned 'king' of a Mormon sect?

James Strang had himself crowned king on Beaver Island on 8 July 1850 and ruled the Strangite colony there until he was shot by two disaffected followers in June 1856.

Michigan's official state soil, designated in 1990, is a sand named after which county?

Kalkaska sand, first identified in the 1920s, is found in 29 of Michigan's counties, covering roughly 750,000 acres of the northern Lower and Upper Peninsulas.