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 10.14 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 Wyandot. Some people contend that the region's name is derived from the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ (mishigami), meaning "large water" or "large lake". While 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.

The Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team is the intercollegiate men's basketball program representing the University of Michigan. The school competes in the Big Ten Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and play their home games at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Wolverines have won one NCAA Championship, three National Invitation Tournaments (NIT), 15 Big Ten regular season titles and four Big Ten tournaments. One NIT title and one Big Ten tournament were later vacated by the NCAA due to sanctions.

Michigan has had 35 All-Americans, selected 48 times. Eight of these have been consensus All-Americans, which are Cazzie Russell (twice), Rickey Green, Gary Grant, Chris Webber, Trey Burke, as well as Harry Kipke, Richard Doyle and Bennie Oosterbaan (twice) who were retroactively selected by the Helms Foundation. Twelve All-Americans have been at least two-time honorees. Russell was the only three-time All-American. (Full article...)

Selected picture - show another

Benton Lake in Manistee National Forest
Benton Lake in Manistee National Forest
Credit: Nickw252

The Huron-Manistee National Forests are actually two National Forests combined in 1945 for administration purposes and which comprise 978,725 acres (3,960 km2) of public lands, including 5,786 acres (23 km2) of wetlands, extending across the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

Did you know - load new batch

Selected article - show another

Selected biography - show another

Trueblood from the 1902 Michiganensian

Thomas Clarkson Trueblood (April 6, 1856 – June 5, 1951) was an American professor of elocution and oratory and the first coach of the University of Michigan golf and debate teams. He was affiliated with the University of Michigan for 67 years from 1884 to 1951, and was a nationally known writer and speaker on oratory and debate. He founded UM's Department of Elocution and Oratory as well as the campus debate program. He became the subject of national media attention in 1903 when the Chicago Tribune ran an article stating that he was offering a new "course in love making." His golf teams won two NCAA National Championships and five Big Ten Conference championships. He was posthumously inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1981. (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