Michigan

 

Michigan is a modification of the words for "big lake" in Ojibwa and Algonquian languages.

    --Indian Names in Michigan, Virgil J. Vogel

 Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams.

            --The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordan Lightfoot

Michigan is my happy place. I have deep family roots there going back to the early settlers of western Michigan in the 1830s and over 50 summer in Leelenau county.  Even so, I'm still learning more about "the mitten." Most people from the coasts may not think beyond Detroit and not know the state is more sand dunes, forests of pine an birch trees, and fresh water lakes. This summer I ventured to its farthest northern territory, Isle Royale and drove the Keewenau peninsula in the upper peninsula (a peninsula in a peninsula) learning about its rich copper mining history and stories of the Finnish community that settled there. I want to go back. More to explore. 

A summary of some of my Michigan books:

 Indian Names in Michigan, Virgil J. Vogel, (The University of Michigan Press, 1986). Vogel traces the origin of hundreds of Indian place names. He traces names from the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potowatomi as well as names from literature and legend ("Leelenau") and artificial "Indian" names ("Allegan"). You'll learn a lot of history while reading the origins of the names.

Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine State, (American Guide Series, 1956). Wonderful collection of history and travel guide produced out of the WPA series on American states. 

When Michigan was Young, Ethel Rowan Fasquelle, (WM. B. Eerdman's Publishing Co., 1950).  Stories of the first French explorers of Ottawa and Ojibwa customs, stories, and legends.

Michigan: A History, Bruce Cotton, (W.W. Norton, 1984). Originally part of series of state histories published for America's bicentennial.  

Finns in Michigan, Gary Kaunonen (Michigan State University Press, 2009). Part of a series, Disovering the Peoples of Michigan. I bought this book after a drive through the Keweenaw Peninsula and learned about the large population of Finns that emigrated to the UP in the late 1800s, many of whom worked in the copper mines. We had just driven through Hancock, where Findlandia University had just closed its doors at the end of the 2023 Spring semester.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Josh Bishop, Moon Handbooks (Avalon Travel, year?). The upper peninsula deserves its own guide. I found this one used in Dog Eared Books, Northport, MI.