Category: Michigan

19 Things About Michigan You May Not Know

10/28/2014

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The world's largest manufacturer of magic supplies is located in Colon, Michigan.
The city of Novi's name comes from its designation as Stagecoach Stop # 6 or No.VI.
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 not at dock, and has been operating for over a 100 years.
Michigan has more shoreline than any other state except Alaska.
Michigan has about 150 lighthouses, the most of any U.S. state. Many of them are considered haunted!
Books are in our blood: Michigan's Consitution was the first to establish 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 is home to a predator-prey relationship between wolves and moose that is unlike any other in the world (join us on our 5-day "Wolves of Isle Royale with Never Cry Wolf" trip to learn more).
The historic Soo Locks in Sault Ste Marie handle more tonnage each year than the Suez and Panama Canals combined.
Grand Haven has singing sand: when you walk on the sand particles, they make a whistling sound.
The Lake Superior shoreline, if laid out in a straight line, could connect Duluth and the Bahama Islands.
Forest covers more than 52 percent of the state with more than 18.5 million acres.
The Great Lakes hold over 80 percent of North America’s fresh water—and more than 20 percent of the world’s.
Authors from Michigan include Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji, The Polar Express), Jeffrey Eugenides (The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex), Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall), Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty), Terry McMillan (Waiting to Exhale), Robert McKee (Story) and many more.
When the Mackinac Bridge first opened in 1957, the fare was $3.75 — today's fare for a standard car is $4. That’s like paying $28.71 in 1957! Why so much? A ferry ticket cost $3.75 in 1957, so drivers could either pay $3.75 to ride the boat across the Straits of Mackinac (which took a long time) or pay the same price and drive across in just a few minutes.
In August of 1923, three of the most famous American entrepreneurs made their first camping trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The three men were Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, and the trip would eventually spur much economic activity in the U.P.! (Time to schedule your own genius camping trip in the U.P.?)
Isle Royale National Park has fewer visitors per year than Yosemite has in one day, making it the least visited national park in the country (did I mention we have a trip there this summer?).
Michigan produces more dog sleds than any other state.

What's your favorite fact about Michigan? Leave it in the comments below.

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Love letter to Michigan: 27 quirky ideas to express your love of the Mitten

5/6/2014

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I love Michigan. I love living here, I love raising my kids here, I love that I get to host the Outdoor Book Club here and I love vacationing here. Michigan offers an amazing range of cultural, natural and environmental treasures: long winding roads through orchards and glacier-carved mountains, an Upper Peninsula where the woods look the same as when Hemingway fished there, and rivers teeming with fish and spirit. Michigan is essentially an outdoor adventurer's paradise.

But the people are pretty great too. I graduated from high school in Troy, but now make my home on the west side of the state in Grand Rapids, and have felt at home in both places. The combination of blue-collar honesty plus the focused creativity and fostering of entrepreneurship makes Michigan one of the best places on earth. Seriously.

Still need convincing that Michigan has cornered the market when it comes to awesome? Here's a list of places and activities you can only do in Michigan, mostly in the summer and fall, that proves it:

Go on a Crystal River rafting trip. You and he whole family can splash through its gentle currents and explore its winding curves.
Drive a dune buggy or ATV through the Silver Lake sand dunes.
Beaver Island is the largest island in Michigan and can only be reached by plane or ferry. Fun fact: it's often called the Emerald Isle, a nod to the island's original Irish population.
Mackinac Island — The ultimate "Up North" Michigan tourism location. Go beyond fudge and bicycles and spend some time getting to know the fort and back side of the island.
Get your zen on this summer with yoga on Belle Isle.
Fall down the dune climb in Sleeping Bear Dunes. Try not to face plant, but realize we all do it (at least if we've really put our hearts into it).
Hunt for Petoskey stones.
Look for agates near Lake Superior (ignore the fact that this link on how to find agates is from a Minnesota paper — everyone knows Michigan has the best agates).
Hike the Porkies.
Hear wolves on Isle Royale, Michigan's only national park.
Tour a copper mine (pick axe optional).
Ooo and ahhh at the musical fountain in Grand Haven — Vegas has nothing on this lakeshore treasure.
Bike the orchards along the Macomb Orchard Trail.
See a concert at Interlochen.
Stand halfway between the equator and the North Pole.
Wine trails!
Zip line! Enjoy the amazing views of Lake Charlevoix from six tree-top platforms.
Go on a culinary tour of Michigan's amazing farm-to-table food.
Hang out with your dog at the Grand Haven Dog Beach.
Meet a cow on a Country Dairy tour.
Plan a college reunion float trip!
Try your hand at a flight simulator at the AirZoo.
Go back in time at Fort Mackinac.
Dive shipwrecks in the great lakes.
Go to race car driving school.
Take amazing photographs on a guided Great Lakes photo tour.
Book an eco-tour to experience the biologically unique habitats, wildlife and natural beauty in the UP.