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Michigan is a Midwestern state of the United States, located in the east north central portion of the country. It was named after Lake Michigan, the word 'Michigan' itself being a French derivative of the Ojibwe misshikama, meaning "big lake".
Bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair, Michigan has the longest freshwater shoreline in the United States, the longest total shoreline after Alaska (including island shorelines), and more recreational boats than any other state in the union. A person in Michigan is never more than 85 miles (137 km) from open Great Lakes water and is never more than 6 miles (10 km) from a natural water source.
Michigan is the only bi-peninsular state. The Lower Peninsula of Michigan, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is sometimes dubbed "the mitten," owing to its shape. When asked where in Michigan one comes from, a resident of the Lower Peninsula may often point to the corresponding part of his or her hand. The Upper Peninsula (U.P.) is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The Upper Peninsula (whose residents are often called "Yoopers") is economically important for tourism and its natural resources.
The Upper and Lower Peninsulas are connected by the five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, which is the third longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the world. This is the source of the name "trolls" for residents of the Lower Peninsula, for they live "under" (south of) the bridge. The Great Lakes that border Michigan are Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Michigan also abuts Lake Saint Clair, which is between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.
Michigan was home to various Native Americans centuries before colonization by Europeans. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous and influential tribes were Algonquian peoples — specifically, the Ottawa, the Anishnabe (called "Chippewa" in French, after their language, "Ojibwe"), and the Potawatomi. The Anishnabe were the most populous, estimated at between 25,000 and 35,000 within Michigan, where they were located throughout in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula. The Anishabe also lived in northern Ontario, northern Wisconsin, southern Manitoba, and northern and north-central Minnesota. The Ottawa lived primarily south of the Straits of Mackinac in northern and western Michigan, while the Potawatomi were primarily in the southwest. The three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. Other First Nations people in Michigan, in the south and east, were the Mascouten, the Miami, and the Wyandot, who are better known by their French name, "Huron".
Michigan consists of two peninsulas that lie between 82°30' to about 90º30' west longitude, and are separated by the Straits of Mackinac.
The state is bounded on the south by the states of Ohio and Indiana, sharing both land and water boundaries with both. Michigan's western boundaries are almost entirely water boundaries, from south to north, with Illinois and Wisconsin in Lake Michigan; then a land boundary with Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, that is principally demarcated by the Menominee and Montreal rivers; then water boundaries again, in Lake Superior, with Wisconsin and Minnesota to the west, capped by Ontario to the north. The northern boundary then runs completely through Lake Superior, from the western boundary with Minnesota to a point north of and around Isle Royale, thence travelling southeastward through the lake in a reasonably straight line to the Sault Ste. Marie area. Ontario is the sole neighbor to the north and east, and is Michigan's largest trading partner. Windsor, Ontario, once the south bank of Detroit, Upper Canada, has the distinction of being the only part of Canada which lies to the due south of a part of the lower 48 continguous United States. The eastern boundary ends in Lake Erie with a three-way convergence of Michigan, Ohio and Ontario. Michigan also shares a water boundary with the Canadian First Nation reserve of Walpole Island.
Michigan encompasses 58,110 square miles (150,504 km²) of land, 38,575 square miles (99,909 km²) of Great Lakes waters and 1,305 square miles (3,380 km²) of inland waters. Only the state of Alaska has more territorial water. After Michigan is third ranked Florida which has 11,827.77 square miles (30,633.8 km²). At a total of 97,990 square miles (253,793 km²), Michigan is the largest state east of the Mississippi River (inclusive of its territorial waters). It is the 10th largest state in the Union.
The heavily forested Upper Peninsula is relatively mountainous in the west. The Porcupine Mountains, which are the oldest mountains in North America, rise to an altitude of almost 2,000 feet above sea level and form the watershed between the streams flowing into Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. The surface on either side of this range is rugged. The state's highest point is Mount Arvon at 1,979 feet (603 m). The peninsula is as large as Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island combined, but has less than 330,000 inhabitants, who are sometimes called "Yoopers" (from "U.P.'ers") and whose speech (the "Yooper dialect") has been heavily influenced by the large number of Scandinavian and Canadian immigrants who settled the area during the mining boom of the late 1800s.
The Lower Peninsula, shaped like a mitten, is 277 miles (446 km) long from north to south and 195 miles (314 km) from east to west and occupies nearly two-thirds of the state's land area. The surface of the peninsula is generally level, broken by conical hills rising to an elevation difference not exceeding 200 feet. It is divided by a low water divide running north and south. The larger portion of the state is on the west of this and gradually slopes toward Lake Michigan. The highest point in the Lower Peninsula is not definitely established but is either Briar Hill at 1,705 feet (520 m), or one of several points nearby. The lowest point is the surface of Lake Erie at 571 feet (174 m).
Michigan has a humid continental climate throughout the state, although there are two distinct regions. The southern and central parts of the Lower Peninsula (south of Saginaw Bay and from the Grand Rapids area southward) has a warmer climate (Koppen climate classification Dfa) with hot, humid summers and cold, but shorter winters. The northern part of Lower Peninsula and the entire Upper Peninsula has a more severe climate (Koppen Dfb), with warm, humid but shorter summers and long, cold to very cold winters. Some parts of the state averaging high temperatures below freezing from December through February, and into early March in the far northern parts. During the late fall through the middle of February the state is frequently subjected to heavy lake effect snow. The state receives a good amount of precipation throughout the year, averaging from 30-40 inches (75–100 cm) annually. Typically, from December through March is slightly drier, while July through September is slightly wetter than the rest of the year, although this difference isn't extreme as in some other states.The entire state averages around 30 days of thunderstorm activity per year, and these can be severe, especially the further south in the state one goes. The state averages 17 tornadoes a year, and these are much more common in the extreme southern portion of the state with portions of the southern border nearly as vulnerable historically as parts of Tornado alley. Further north, in the Upper Peninsula, tornadoes are rare, but have occurred.
Metropolitan areas by population
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