Michigan State USA
Destination Guide & Hotel Reservations
Mention MICHIGAN and most people think of cars, heavy industry and inner-city
Detroit. Midwesterners prefer to focus on its magnificent scenery. The beaches, dunes and
cliffs along the 3200-mile shoreline of its two vividly contrasting peninsulas -
bordering four of the five Great Lakes - rival many an oceanfront state.
The mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula is dominated from its southeastern corner by
the industrial giant of Detroit , surrounded by satellite cities heavily devoted to
the automotive industry. In the west, the scenic 350-mile Lake Michigan shore drive passes
through likeable little ports before reaching the stunning Sleeping Bear Dunes and
resort towns such as Traverse City in the peninsula's balmy northwest corner. The
desolate, dramatic and thinly popu lated Upper Peninsula , reaching out from
Wisconsin like a claw to separate lakes Superior and Michigan, is a far cry indeed from
the cosmopolitan south.
In the mid-seventeenth century, French explorers forged a successful trading
relationship with the Chippewa, Ontario and other tribes. The British , who
acquired control after 1763, were far more brutal. Governor Henry Hamilton, the "Hair
Buyer of Detroit," advocated taking scalps rather than prisoners. Ever since,
Michigan's economy has developed in waves, the eighteenth-century fur, timber and copper
booms culminating in the state establishing itself at the forefront of the nation's
manufacturing capacity, thanks to its abundant raw materials, good transportation links,
and the genius of innovators such as Henry Ford . Despite the slumps of the
Seventies and Eighties, car production remains the major source of Michigan income - and
tourism is now a four-season money-spinner.
Reserve a Hotel Room in the State of Michigan USA
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