Michigan has a mighty industrial heritage and is well-known as the birthplace of the automobile industry, but rivaling the machines, mines, and mills is the nearly $13 billion-a-year tourist industry. The two great Michigan peninsulas, surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes, unfold a tapestry of lakeshore beaches, trout-filled streams, more than 11,000 inland lakes, nearly 7 million acres of public hunting grounds--and the cultural attractions of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Interlochen, and other cities.

Michigan has a geographically split personality linked by a single--but magnificent--5-mile-long bridge. The Upper Peninsula faces Lake Superior on one side and Lake Michigan on the other. It revels in its north-country beauty and ruggedness. The Lower Peninsula has shores on Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Its highly productive Midwestern-style farmland is dotted with diversified cities. In total, Michigan has more shoreline than any of the other lower-48 states.

Michigan is a four-season vacationland, with the tempering winds off the Great Lakes taming what might otherwise be a climate of extremes. In a land of cherry blossoms, tulips, ski slopes, and sugar-sand beaches, you can fish through the ice, hunt deer with a bow and arrow, snowmobile on hundreds of miles of marked trails, follow the trail of a bobcat, rough it on an uncluttered island, trace Native American paths, or hunt for copper, iron ore, and Lake Superior agates or Petoskey stones. One of the country's finest art museums is in Detroit, and Dearborn's The Henry Ford (formerly Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village) attracts visitors from all over the world. Shopping and casino gambling are popular attractions, and Michigan has an increasing array of challenging resort golf courses as well as more than 750 public courses, more than any other state. Ann Arbor, East Lansing, and Houghton offer outstanding universities that host exciting football, basketball, and hockey contests.

A world center for automobile manufacture, Michigan leads in the production of automobiles and light trucks. More than two-thirds of the nation's tart red cherries are harvested here; Traverse City hosts the National Cherry Festival each July. This state is also one of the nation's leading producers of blueberries and dry, edible beans. Wheat, hay, corn, oats, turkeys, cattle, and hogs are produced in vast quantities. The Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie boast the two longest locks in the world, which can accommodate superfreighters 1,000 feet long.

French missionaries and explorers, namely Marquette and Joliet, were the first known Europeans to penetrate the lakes, rivers, and streams of Michigan. In their wake came armies of trappers eager to barter with the natives and platoons of soldiers to guard the newly acquired territory. Frenchmen and Native Americans teamed to unsuccessfully fight the British when Ottawa chief Pontiac banded together with other tribes in a bold attempt to overtake Fort Detroit, Fort Michilimackinac, and ten other British forts. The British, in turn, were forced to retreat into Canada after the American colonies successfully revolted. The British briefly forged into Michigan again during the War of 1812, retreating finally to become Michigan's good neighbors in Canada.

There has been a wavelike pattern to Michigan's economic development. First there were the trees that created a great lumber industry. These were rapidly depleted. The copper and iron-ore mines followed. They also are now mostly inactive, although the discovery of new copper deposits is leading to renewed activity. Finally, the automobile industry, diversified industries, and tourism have become successful. Today, the St. Lawrence Seaway makes the Michigan international port cities and the state's future a prosperous one.