- Detroit is known as the car capital of the world.
- Alpena is the home of the world's largest cement plant.
- Rogers City boasts the world's largest limestone quarry.
- Elsie is the home of the world's largest registered
Holstein dairy herd.
- Michigan is first in the United States production of
peat and magnesium compounds and second in gypsum and iron
ore.
- Colon is home to the world's largest manufacture of
magic supplies.
- The state Capitol with its majestic dome was built in
Lansing in l879.
- Although Michigan is often called the "Wolverine State"
there are no longer any wolverines in Michigan.
- Michigan ranks first in state boat registrations.
- The Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit manufactured
the first air-conditioned car in 1939.
- The oldest county (based on date of incorporation) is
Wayne in 1815.
- Sault Ste. Marie was founded by Father Jacques Marquette
in 1668. It is the third oldest remaining settlement in the
United States.
- 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.
- The city of Novi was named from its designation as
Stagecoach Stop # 6 or No.VI.
- 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.
- 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.
- The largest village in Michigan is Caro.
- Michigan's state stone, The Petoskey is the official
state stone. It is found along the shores of Lake Michigan.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The painted turtle is Michigan's state reptile.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Detroit Zoo was the first zoo in America to feature
cageless, open-exhibits that allowed the animals more
freedom to roam.
- 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.
- Indian River is the home of the largest crucifix in the
world. It is called the Cross in the Woods.
- Michigan has the longest freshwater shoreline in the
world.
- Michigan has more shoreline than any other state except
Alaska.
- 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."
- Michigan has more than 11,000 inland lakes and more than
36,000 miles of streams.
- Michigan has 116 lighthouses and navigational lights.
- 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.
- 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.
- Standing anywhere in the state a person is within 85
miles of one of the Great Lakes.
- 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.
- Sault Ste. Marie was established in 1668 making it the
oldest town between the Alleghenies and the Rockies.
- Michigan was the first state to provide in its
Constitution for the establishment of public libraries.
- Michigan was the first state to guarantee every child
the right to tax-paid high school education.
- Four flags have flown over Michigan - French, English,
Spanish and United States.
- Isle Royal Park shelters one of the largest moose herds
remaining in the United States.
- 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.
- The Upper Michigan Copper Country is the largest
commercial deposit of native copper in the world.
- 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 100%-900 pounds apiece they are
composed of copper, iron and pewter.
- The first auto traffic tunnel built between two nations
was the mile-long Detroit-Windsor tunnel under the Detroit
River.
- The world's first international submarine railway tunnel
was opened between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario,
Canada in 1891.
- The nation's first regularly scheduled air passage
service began operation between Grand Rapids and Detroit in
1926.
- In 1879 Detroit telephone customers were first in the
nation to be assigned phone numbers to facilitate handling
calls.
- In 1929, the Michigan State Police established the first
state police radio system in the world.
- 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.
Thanks to: Ruby
Simmons, Eric Merriam, James Toscas, Jan Lee Asmann, Janet
Kijek, James H. Jackson, Katrina & Bryan Tollenaar
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