Happy 180th Birthday, Michigan!
Tyler Common
| 2 min read
In celebration of Michigan’s 180th birthday on Thursday, Jan. 26, the DTE Energy team compiled a list of 180 reasons we love the state. With their blessing, we’ve chosen 10 of our favorites:
- Michigan’s state motto is “Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice,” meaning “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.”
- Michigan leads the nation in auto-related research and development.
- Littered on the bottom of the Great Lakes are the remains of more than 6,000 shipwrecks gone missing. One of the most famous shipwrecks is the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior. Singer and songwriter Gordon Lightfoot even wrote a song about it.
- Detroit is the only city in the continental United States where you look south to Canada. So, geographically speaking, there is no such thing as being born and raised in South Detroit.
- You are never more than an hour drive from a state park or recreation area.
- Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, also referred to as ‘The Top of the World’ is home to the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.
- Vernors Ginger Soda was created in Detroit and became the first pop made in the country.
- Despite being home to the Motor City, it is illegal to sell a car in Michigan on Sunday.
- You can travel from Hell to Paradise in the same day. Other interesting names of Michigan towns include Christmas, Bad Axe and Podunk.
- Michigan is the only state that touches four of the five Great Lakes. Anywhere in the state, you are always within 85 miles of one of the Great Lakes.
Did we forget the reason you love Michigan most? Let us know in the comments below.
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Photo credit: Joshua R. Nichols
Editor’s note: Thank you to our friends at DTE Energy for providing the source material for this post.
