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Mention MICHIGAN and most people think of cars, heavy industry
and inner-city Detroit. Midwesterners prefer to focus on its magnificent
scenery. The beaches, dunes and cliffs along the 3200-mile shoreline
of its two vividly contrasting peninsulas - bordering four of the
five Great Lakes - rival many an oceanfront state.
The mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula is dominated from its southeastern
corner by the industrial giant of Detroit , surrounded by satellite
cities heavily devoted to the automotive industry. In the west,
the scenic 350-mile Lake Michigan shore drive passes through likeable
little ports before reaching the stunning Sleeping Bear Dunes and
resort towns such as Traverse City in the peninsula's balmy northwest
corner. The desolate, dramatic and thinly popu lated Upper Peninsula
, reaching out from Wisconsin like a claw to separate lakes Superior
and Michigan, is a far cry indeed from the cosmopolitan south.
In the mid-seventeenth century, French explorers forged a successful
trading relationship with the Chippewa, Ontario and other tribes.
The British , who acquired control after 1763, were far more brutal.
Governor Henry Hamilton, the "Hair Buyer of Detroit,"
advocated taking scalps rather than prisoners. Ever since, Michigan's
economy has developed in waves, the eighteenth-century fur, timber
and copper booms culminating in the state establishing itself at
the forefront of the nation's manufacturing capacity, thanks to
its abundant raw materials, good transportation links, and the genius
of innovators such as Henry Ford . Despite the slumps of the Seventies
and Eighties, car production remains the major source of Michigan
income - and tourism is now a four-season money-spinner.
It's easy to be daunted by Michigan's sheer size : Detroit is more
than seven hundred miles from Ironwood on the Wisconsin border (a
ferry between Ludington and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, helps to cut driving
time). Greyhound buses run regularly throughout the south, but services
elsewhere are less frequent, and those few buses that serve the
remote Upper Peninsula travel through at night. Amtrak trains between
New York and Chicago stop at Detroit, Dearborn and Ann Arbor; trains
into Canada leave from Windsor, just over the river from Detroit.
Michigan's principal airport , a hub for Northwest Airlines, is
just outside Detroit. Cycling is both feasible and rewarding, particularly
with the abundance of bike paths in and around Traverse City; Michigan
Bicycle Touring (tel 616/463-5885, ) in Kingsley organizes tours
and can help with routes.
See what Michigan car rentals has to offer today. Choose a link
above to view today's special Michigan rental car rates from different
agencies! Click here to get started with a car
rental quote now!
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