The Mitten State

It has happened! Jon has accepted a job offer in Michigan. We are thrilled to become Michiganders, and have enjoyed learning some things about our new home, as of this August. Some interesting facts (gleaned from that fabulous site, wilkipedia) about Michigan:

It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigami, meaning “large water” or “large lake”.

Michigan has the longest freshwater shoreline in the world.

A person in Michigan is never more than 85 miles (137 km) from open Great Lakes water and is never more than six miles (10 km) from a natural water source.

The Lower Peninsula of Michigan, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is sometimes dubbed “the mitten,” owing to its shape. When asked where in Michigan one comes from, a resident of the Lower Peninsula may often point to the corresponding part of his or her hand.

Michigan was the first state in the Union

Michigan forestland covers nearly 52 percent of the state at 19.3 million acres.

Occasionally U.P. residents have called for secession from Michigan and establishment as a new state to be called “Superior.”

Michigan has about 150 lighthouses, the most of any U.S. state.