Michigan Mittens

People have been living in Michigan for longer than anyone can remember. Before the French, British and Americans came here in the 1600s and 1700s, Michigan was home to several native tribes. Michigan’s three largest tribes are the Ojibwa, the Odawa and the Potawatomi.  They… Read More

The People On January 12, 1835, territorial governor Stevens T. Mason announced that Michigan was ready to become a state. But, the United State Congress said no. Congress said Michigan had work to do before becoming a state. First, at least 60,000 people had to live within… Read More

Most wars leave people hurt or dead and cause much damage.  However, the Toledo War was an exception.  It was not an official war.  No one died in the war and there was little damage.   Michigan and Ohio waged this war in 1835 over… Read More

During the 1830s, the population of Michigan grew quickly. In 1830, 27,000 people lived in Michigan. By 1840, more than 212,000 people lived here. Most “Yankees,” or people from the East coast, arrived in Detroit. What was life like as they headed into the wilderness? Getting… Read More

There are many reasons people move to a new place. Sometimes, it’s for a new job or opportunity. Other times, it’s to be with family. In the early 1800s, people began moving to Michigan for similar reasons. Let’s look at some reasons why people were… Read More

Building a Home Mary Lewis and her family moved to Michigan from New York when she was four years old. Her father bought land in Barry County, halfway between the present cities of Grand Rapids and Battle Creek. The first thing Mary’s family did was to cut… Read More

Emily Wells was born in 1824 in Richmond, New York. In 1834, her entire family, including her parents and seven brothers and sisters, traveled on the Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York. Then they took a steam ship across Lake Erie. Eventually they settled in… Read More

According to one lumberman who lived through Michigan’s logging era, “there is no other tree in the world which has so much romance…as the white pine.” He was correct. It was the white pine that made Michigan the nation’s leading lumber-producing state from 1860-1910. The state’s… Read More

It is 1873, and you are the owner of Ajax Logging Company. Your shanty boys have just logged over a stretch of forest in Isabella County.  What’s next? First, you call your timber cruisers.  These men are sent to nearby Osceola County to look for a… Read More

The lumber industry has not changed that much since the 1800s. Sawmills are much safer and use the latest technology. But they still take a log and turn it into boards. Before a log arrives at the sawmill, a forester is sent out to buy trees… Read More

In 1841, state geologist Douglass Houghton visited the Upper Peninsula. He reported that copper existed on the Keweenaw Peninsula. However, he warned that the red metal would be hard to mine. Native Americans have used copper from the Upper Peninsula for thousands of years, but no… Read More

On September 19, 1844, near present-day Negaunee, William Austin Burt and his surveying crew first discovered iron ore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Within a few years iron ore mines were opened across the central Upper Peninsula.  The first mine was the Jackson Mine near Negaunee. … Read More

A New Home To attract workers and their families to their mines, mining companies constructed houses, boarding houses, stores, hospitals, and schools. These settlements were called company towns. Company Houses Some companies built rows and rows of houses that all looked the same. Others designed many types of… Read More

On June 18, 1855, the steamer Illinois became the first boat to pass through the Soo Locks. The trip past the St Marys River rapids took less than an hour. Although difficult to build, the Soo Locks soon played an important role in America’s industrial… Read More

The Underground Railroad meant freedom for thousands of enslaved people from the South. The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad. It was the name given to the route of roads, homes and towns used to help freedom seekers leave their enslavers. Many enslaved people… Read More

When the Civil War began in 1861, African Americans wanted to join the Northern army to help end the rebellion. Their offers to become soldiers were refused. There was an old law that said Black men could not serve in the United States army. During the… Read More

“I will build a motor car for the great multitude,” Henry Ford announced. “It will be so low in price, that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one.”  With these words, Henry Ford introduced the world to the Model T. In… Read More

During World War II, the United States was known as the Arsenal of Democracy because of its great manufacturing capabilities. The title applied to the tens of thousands of workers who worked in Michigan’s auto plants making weapons of war. In the years before World War… Read More

The story of how American’s breakfast eating habits changed started shortly after the Civil War. At the Western Reform Health Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan, patients were “cured” using water, sunshine, exercise, rest, and a healthy diet. In 1875, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a battle… Read More

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is among America’s best-recognized civil rights activists. He delivered his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream”, in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Dr. King first gave that speech in Detroit. In the spring of 1963, Detroiters looked for… Read More

On May 2, 1933, two hundred young men from Detroit arrived at an isolated spot in the Hiawatha National Forest, west of Sault Ste Marie. They set up tents and called the area Camp Raco. Within months many similar camps were scattered across northern Michigan. The… Read More

According to one Detroiter, the Great Depression taught her “about survival.” The Depression of the 1930s was a desperate time. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, went hungry, and were forced to give up their homes. The Depression started because Americans lived beyond their means in… Read More

For years, the Straits of Mackinac presented a difficult barrier to travel between the upper and lower peninsulas. When railroads introduced car ferries (boats that carried railroad cars) in the 1880s, it became easier to cross the straits. In 1923, the State Highway Department started… Read More