Portal:Michigan


The Michigan Portal

The flag of Michigan
Location of Michigan within the United States

Michigan (/ˈmɪʃɪɡən/ ⓘ MISH-ig-ən) is a peninsular state in the Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, Indiana and Illinois to the southwest, Ohio to the southeast, and the Canadian province of Ontario to the east, northeast and north. With a population of 10.13 million and an area of 96,716 sq mi (250,490 km2), Michigan is the tenth-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the largest by total area east of the Mississippi River. The state capital is Lansing, while its most populous city is Detroit. The Metro Detroit region in Southeast Michigan is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies. Other important metropolitan areas include Grand Rapids, Flint, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, the Tri-Cities, and Muskegon.

Michigan consists of two peninsulas: the heavily forested Upper Peninsula (commonly called "the U.P."), which juts eastward from northern Wisconsin, and the more populated Lower Peninsula, stretching north from Ohio and Indiana. The peninsulas are separated by the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and are linked by the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge along Interstate 75. Bordering four of the five Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair, Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any U.S. political subdivision, measuring 3,288 miles. The state ranks second behind Alaska in water coverage by square miles and first in percentage, with approximately 42%, and it also contains 64,980 inland lakes and ponds.

The Great Lakes region has largely been inhabited for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples such as the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, and Wendat. Some people contend that the region's name is derived from the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ (mishigami), meaning "large water" or "large lake". Others say that it comes from the Mishiiken Tribe of Mackinac Island, also called Michinemackinawgo by Ottawa historian Andrew Blackbird, whose surrounding lands were referred to as Mishiiken-imakinakom, later shortened to Michilimackinac.

In the 17th century, French explorers claimed the area for New France. French settlers and Métis established forts and settlements. After France's defeat in the French and Indian War in 1762, the area came under British control and later the U.S. following the Treaty of Paris (1783), though control remained disputed with Indigenous tribes until treaties between 1795 and 1842. The area was part of the larger Northwest Territory; the Michigan Territory was organized in 1805. (Full article...)

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

Bird watching station at Whitefish Point

The Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (WPBO) is located in Chippewa County, Michigan, US, adjacent to the Whitefish Point Unit of the Seney National Wildlife Refuge. It operates as a non-profit, affiliate education and research facility of the Michigan Audubon Society. The Society and the WPBO together have recorded over 300 species of birds at Whitefish Point. As one of a network of bird observatories in the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network, the WPBO documents the bird population of the Great Lakes region through bird banding, data collection, and research studies. (Full article...)

Selected picture - show another

Rivard Place part of Detroit International Riverfront
Rivard Place part of Detroit International Riverfront
Credit: Mikerussell

The Detroit International Riverfront is an area so designated by the nonprofit city sponsored managing entity, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization. The conservancy resulted from a study commissioned by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Did you know - load new batch

Selected article - show another

USGS aerial imagery of Grassy Island

Grassy Island is a small, uninhabited 72-acre (29 ha) American island in the Detroit River. It is located just north of Grosse Ile and west of Fighting Island, about 600 feet (180 m) west of the Canada–United States border. The island is part of the city of Wyandotte, in Wayne County. The island is part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. Grassy Island should not be confused with Grass Island, which is an island of Ontario on the exact opposite side of the Detroit River.

Grassy Island was first charted by French explorers in 1796 as Ile Marecageuse (Marshy Island). At the time, the island's size was only six acres (2.4 ha), and the whole length of the Detroit River was a prominent coastal marshland. During the nineteenth century, the island was primarily used as a fishery and later was home to the Grassy Island Light. From around 1960–1982, the island served as a disposal facility for millions of cubic meters of toxic soil dredged from the nearby River Rouge, and the island's size was increased dramatically. Because of that, the island remains heavily contaminated today. (Full article...)

Selected biography - show another

Harris with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2011

Corperryale Lādorable "Manny" Harris (born September 21, 1989) is an American former professional basketball player who last played for Al Riyadi Beirut of the Lebanese Basketball League. He has previously played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and is a former All-Big Ten Conference guard who played three seasons for the Michigan Wolverines.

He decided to forgo his final year of collegiate eligibility and declare himself eligible for the 2010 NBA draft, but went undrafted. He signed with the Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He began his second year injured and rehabbed for two months in the NBA D-League with Cavaliers' affiliate, the Canton Charge, before being re-signed by the Cavaliers. He signed with BC Azovmash of Ukraine in September 2012 and spent 2012–13 playing in the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague. For the following two seasons he split time in the NBA, NBA D-League and in the Turkish Basketball Super League. He is an NBA D-League All-star and six-time D-League performer of the week. He has set single-game scoring records for the Legends, Charge and D-Fenders franchises. (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various Michigan-related articles on Wikipedia.

Topics

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Things you can do

Discover Wikipedia using portals