does anyone know really good Michigan sities tht i can find out abt the state?

Question

good places to live and to eat, bookstores and the history on the state??

Answer 1

michigan.gov is the official state website, and you can go from there. I grew up in Michigan, and can tell you this ...

Detroit and its close-in suburbs are in decline. I wouldn't live there. The far northern suburbs (Oakland County, Rochester Hills) are newer and nicer. Ann Arbor is a university city supporting a liberal, intellectual high tech economy & lifestyle. Western Michigan -- along Lake Michigan -- is more pastoral. Central Michigan -- neither east nor west -- consists largely of farmland outside the towns and cities. The northwestern part of the Lower Peninsula -- Traverse City and environs -- is touristy and scenic. The Upper Peninsula is wooded, scenic, and lightly populated. Jobs up there are scarce.

Most of the people live south of a line extending from Flint/Saginaw/Bay City over to Grand Rapids, especially southeastern Michigan, which is the most densely populated area.

Western Michigan gets the most snowfall due to lake effects.

Borders bookstore was founded and is headquartered in Ann Arbor.

Can't say much about restaurants. That's very local.

Lots of lakes in Michigan. Also, it's a fairly flat state ... not as flat as the Great Plains, but also no mountains.

300 years ago, Michigan was covered by forest. The French trappers and missionaries came first in their canoes -- up north at Sault Sainte Marie and Mackinac, and also at Detroit. A lot of place names are French. Waterways were the main transportation routes.

The British briefly displaced the French after the Fall of Quebec, and then it became part of the American Northwest Territory after the American Revolution.

The Erie Canal (1820) really opened up Michigan for settlement. Pioneers, largely from New England and upstate New York, migrated to the frontier in southeastern Michigan by crossing Lake Erie. Michigan became a state in 1837 with centrally located Lansing as its capital.

There's a significant Dutch presence in western Michigan (Holland, Zeeland). Grand Rapids (the rapids of the Grand River) was an early furniture manufacturing center due to the abundance of high quality hardwoods.

Michigan's aboriginal Indians were mostly removed west toward the Mississippi in the 1840s pursuant to Andrew Jackson's policies.

Detroit boomed early in the 20th century after Henry Ford inaugurated the automobile production line. For the first three quarters of the last century, Detroit was the automotive capital of the world. Lots of smokestacks, now known as part of the Rust Belt. Automobile manufacturing also flourished in Lansing and Flint, and auto suppliers sprinkled the rest of southeastern Michigan.

Kellogg's cereals were in Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo had a paper industry.

Assembly line jobs in the auto industry sparked a migration from the south from the 1920s until after WWII. You could get a high-paying union job for life with a high school education or less. The demographics of Detroit changed with an influx of African-Americans, but the working-class city was highly segregated. Eastern Europeans (Poles, Ukranians) settled in Hamtramck and Highland Park -- "enclave" cities entirely surrounded by Detroit.

Detroit made important contributions to the American war effort in WWII. As a world-class city, Detroit probably peaked around mid-century when it was the fifth largest city in America. There were race riots in 1967 (43 dead), followed by white flight. Detroit has lost population since, and is now largely black -- maybe as much as ninety percent.

For the last decade or two, Michigan has been trying to redefine itself in an attempt to generate more jobs. It wants to become more of a center of information technology, and is actively recruiting Japanese auto manufacturers. Unions seem to be in retreat.

The cost of living in Michigan is low relative to the east and west coasts.

Last thing -- Michigan has a continental climate tempered by lake effects. That means hot summers and cold winters with relatively high humidity.

Answer 2

I know that there is a really nice house for sale in Durand, Michigan (about 15 miles west of Flint). And I would be happy to share that information and picture, too.

Answer 3

Some Michigan facts:

Biggest state east of Mississippi.
3300+ miles of shoreline.
Four Great Lakes within its borders.
11,000+ inland lakes.
Oldest mountains in North America (Pocupine Mountains).
Most lighthouses in the US (around 120).
Some of the highest dunes in the world.

Answer 4

michigan.gov
metrotimes.com