Michigan | Capital, Map, Population, History, & Facts | Britannica (original) (raw)

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Michigan, constituent state of the United States of America. Although by the size of its land Michigan ranks only 22nd of the 50 states, the inclusion of the Great Lakes waters over which it has jurisdiction increases its area considerably, placing it 11th in terms of total area. The capital is Lansing, in south-central Michigan. The state’s name is derived from michi-gama, an Ojibwa (Chippewa) word meaning “large lake.”

Michigan is the only one of the states to be split into two large land segments: the sparsely populated but mineral-rich Upper Peninsula (commonly called “the U.P.”) slices eastward from northern Wisconsin between Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula reaches northward from Indiana and Ohio. Indeed, for most Michigan residents, an upturned right hand serves as a ready-made map for roughly locating towns, routes, regions, parks, or any other feature of the Lower Peninsula. The two landmasses have been connected since 1957 by “Big Mac,” the 5-mile (8-km) 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. The St. Marys River, which flows from Lake Superior to Lake Huron, forms the international boundary between the Upper Peninsula and Ontario.

Quick Facts

Also Known As:

Great Lakes State

Population1:

(2020) 10,077,331; (2023 est.) 10,037,261

Date Of Admission:

Jan. 26, 1837

State Nickname:

Wolverine State

Great Lake State

State Motto:

"Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice (If You Seek a Pleasant Peninsula, Look About You)"

State Bird:

American robin

State Flower2:

apple blossom

dwarf lake iris

State Song:

“My Michigan”

Seats In U.S. House Of Representatives:

14 (of 435)

Time Zone:

Central (GMT − 6 hours)

Eastern (GMT − 5 hours)

Total Area (Sq Km):

250,487

Total Area (Sq Mi):

96,713

Since its admission on January 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, to a lesser extent, forestry. In addition, 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 country’s leading tourist destinations.

Michigan’s population is primarily urban, concentrated in the industrialized centres of the southern Lower Peninsula. Many have been attracted by the union-dominated labour pool, and the state’s urban populations reflect a broad spectrum of ethnic, economic, educational, and professional backgrounds. Such socioeconomic diversity has given rise to an environment in which affluence and poverty often exist side by side; nowhere is this better exemplified than in the Detroit metropolitan region. The state government coordinates a vast network of programs that aim to reduce such contrasts. Michigan’s system of public higher education has consistently remained among the strongest, most diverse, and most widely respected in the country. Area 96,713 square miles (250,487 square km). Population (2020) 10,077,331; (2023 est.) 10,037,261.

Land

Relief

The mildly rolling terrain and generally low elevations that characterize much of Michigan’s countryside appealed to the early agricultural settlers. The highest point in the Lower Peninsula, near Cadillac, rises only to about 1,700 feet (520 metres). Flat, nearly featureless plains also occur in many parts of the state; these are vestiges of the floors of large glacial lakes that existed some 10,000 to 14,000 years ago. In the mid-19th century, most of these flatlands were malarial swamps that deterred settlers and were the source of much angst for early farmers. Draining of the swamps, a tiring process, has yielded highly productive farmland since that time. Large sand dunes rim the shores of Lake Michigan. Much of the northern Lower Peninsula and the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula are wooded.

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The western segment of the Upper Peninsula belongs to the Superior Upland (a region lying to the south of Lake Superior and stretching westward from the Upper Peninsula across northern Wisconsin and Minnesota). There, rock-cored hills, some so large as to be named the Huron and Porcupine mountains, provide more relief; the peaks of the Hurons rise above 1,900 feet (580 metres).

Drainage

In addition to being virtually surrounded by water, Michigan has an abundance of inland lakes, swamps, wetlands, and waterways. The state’s roughly 11,000 inland lakes, most of which are glacial in origin, range in size from less than an acre to the nearly 20,000 acres (8,100 hectares) of Houghton Lake in the north-central Lower Peninsula. Michigan’s rivers, which generally are shallow and narrow, drain the state’s high interior. Most of the larger rivers are found in the southern part of the Lower Peninsula, and they flow relatively evenly throughout the year. In the Upper Peninsula, where elevations are higher and snowfall is more plentiful, many rivers have a pronounced peak discharge in spring when the snow melts. Although several of the rivers, especially in the Upper Peninsula, have waterfalls, the navigability of the state’s waterways and the ease of portaging encouraged early settlement. Compared with those in nearby states, most of Michigan’s rivers are short; distances from the headwaters to the mouths of the major rivers (which usually empty into one of the Great Lakes) are usually less than 150 miles (240 km).

About 500 islands dot the lakes and rivers of Michigan; nearly 350 of them are named. Belle Isle, a public recreation centre, and Grosse Ile, largely residential, are well-known features of the Detroit River. Mackinac Island, near the Straits of Mackinac, is a resort on which motor vehicles are prohibited. Isle Royale, a virgin wilderness of almost 900 square miles (2,300 square km), is a national park in western Lake Superior, near Canada.

Soils

Michigan’s soils vary regionally, depending on a number of factors, including climate, landform, and vegetation, as well as wetness, which is mainly a function of texture (various combinations of sand, silt, and clay) and depth of the water table. Fertile clays and loams in the southern Lower Peninsula foster extensive agriculture, while less-productive dry sandy soils dominate in the northern Lower Peninsula. The Upper Peninsula has a few fertile areas, but most of the soil is either sandy and similar to that of the northern Lower Peninsula or wet and swampy. The soils of the western Upper Peninsula are acidic and rocky, rendering that region generally unsuitable for cultivation. Peat and muck soils, which formed from inland lakes and flat, wet plains that became filled with organic matter, are found throughout the state, especially in the eastern Upper Peninsula. Where they exist in the Lower Peninsula, these soils are particularly important for vegetable production and, more recently, for growing turfgrass (sod). Throughout much of the state, subsurface drainage has been necessary to make wet soils tillable and productive. In some of the sandier areas of the Lower Peninsula, overhead irrigation has become popular among farmers as a way to augment yields on dry and sandy but otherwise productive sites.