Michigan

Introduction

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.

Since its admission on Jan. 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 96,716 square miles (250,493 square km).

Pop. (2000) 10,071,822; (2007 est.) 10,095,643.

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.

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.

Climate

The Great Lakes cool the hot winds of summer and warm the cold winds of winter, giving Michigan a more moderate and somewhat moister climate than some other north-central states. Although the Upper Peninsula is cooler, the temperature ranges in Michigan's far northern and far southern cities do not differ excessively. In the far north, in Sault Sainte Marie, January high temperatures are usually in the low 20s F (about 6 °C), while low temperatures hover near 5 °F ( 15 °C); in July temperatures rise into the mid-70s F (about 24 °C) and drop into the low 50s F (about 11 °C) daily. In Detroit, in the southeast, January high temperatures usually reach the low 30s F (about 1 °C), while lows fall to about 20 °F (about 7 °C); in July, high temperatures are typically in the mid-80s F (about 29 °C) and lows are in the mid-60s F (about 18 °C). Michigan has average annual precipitation of about 30–38 inches (760–965 mm). The wettest part of the state is in the southwest, with precipitation decreasing toward the northeast. Alpena, in the northeastern Lower Peninsula, is one of the driest sites in the United States east of the Mississippi River. There are two lake-effect snowbelts, one on the south shore of Lake Superior, in the Upper Peninsula, the other on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in the Lower Peninsula. These regions, which stretch inland for some 30 to 60 miles (50 to 100 km), may receive two to three times more winter snowfall than elsewhere in the state. The length of the growing season ranges from about two months in the Upper Peninsula to almost six months near the lakes in the southern portion of the Lower Peninsula. Severe weather phenomena, such as tornadoes, are rare and usually are restricted to late summer.

Plant and animal life

Almost all of Michigan was once heavily wooded, with genuine prairies or clearings found only in the southwest and on some coastal dunes. Hardwood forests in the southern part of the state were dominated by oak and hickory in drier areas with relatively poor soils, and by maple and beech in wetter areas with richer soils. In the north, maple, beech, and various species of pine, birch, aspen, and hemlock were commonplace. Large, nearly pure tracts of white pine once dominated the northern region and were the basis for the state's emergence as a leading lumber producer in the late 19th century. By the mid-20th century, only about half of the state remained forest-covered. Since that time, however, there has been slow regrowth of forested land, and Michigan's woodlands remain among the most extensive in the country; the state has four national forests.

Animals native to the area are numerous. Whitefish and lake trout abound in the Great Lakes, and many of Michigan's streams contain various other trout. The state's Department of Natural Resources operates hatcheries and encourages fishing in the many inland lakes, where perch, pike, and bass abound. Beavers were sought eagerly by early traders, and other fur-bearing mammals were also found in large numbers. Deer and bears, as well as quail and ducks, remain numerous in many areas. Since the late 20th century, turkeys, elk, and moose have been restocked in northern Michigan and are now thriving there. Despite Michigan's nickname of the Wolverine State, wolverines are extremely rare in the area. It was long believed that the last known specimen was killed (and stuffed) in the 1860s. However, sporadic sightings of wolverines have been reported more recently.