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Note: Alaska and Hawaii are shown out of
position for reference only and are not to scale.
Blank
Michigan State Outline Map
Michigan consists of two peninsulas that lie between
82°30' to about 90º30' west longitude, and are
separated by the Straits of Mackinac.
The state
is bounded on the south by the states of
Ohio and Indiana, sharing both
land and water boundaries with both. Michigan's western
boundaries are almost entirely water boundaries, from south
to north, with Illinois and Wisconsin in Lake Michigan; then
a land boundary with Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, that
is principally demarcated by the
Menominee and Montreal
rivers; then water boundaries again, in
Lake Superior, with
Wisconsin and
Minnesota to the west, capped around by the Canadian
province of Ontario to the north and
east. The northern boundary then runs completely through
Lake Superior, from the western boundary with
Minnesota to a point north of and
around Isle Royale, (which is
Michigan's only National Park),
thence traveling southeastward through the lake in a
reasonably straight line to the Sault Ste. Marie area.
Windsor, Ontario, once the
south bank of Detroit, Upper Canada, has the distinction of
being the only part of Canada which lies to the due south
of a part of the lower 48 contiguous United States. In
Southeastern Michigan
there is a water boundary with the Canada along the entire
lengths of the St. Clair River,
Lake St. Clair (including the
First Nation reserve of
Walpole Island) and the
Detroit River. The
south-eastern boundary ends in the western end of
Lake Erie with a three-way
convergence of Michigan, Ohio and Ontario.
Michigan
encompasses 58,110 square miles
(150,504 km²) of land,
38,575 square miles (99,909 km²)
of Great Lakes waters and 1,305 square miles (3,380
km²) of inland waters. Only
the state of Alaska has more territorial water. After
Michigan is third ranked Florida which has 11,827.77 square
miles (30,633.8 km²).[18]
At a total of 97,990 square miles (253,793
km²), Michigan is the
largest state east of the
Mississippi River (inclusive of its territorial waters).
It is the 10th largest state in the Union. Michigan claims a
land area of 58,110 square miles of land and 97,990 sq mi
total, making it the tenth largest state, but the U.S.
Census Bureau claims only 56,803.82 sq mi of land and
96,716.11 sq mi total, making it the 11th largest.
The heavily
forested Upper Peninsula is relatively mountainous in the
west. The Porcupine Mountains,
which are the oldest mountains in North America, rise to an
altitude of almost 2,000
feet above sea level and form the watershed between the
streams flowing into Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. The
surface on either side of this range is rugged. The state's
highest point, in the Huron
Mountains northwest of Marquette, is
Mount Arvon at 1,979 feet (603
m). The peninsula is as large as
Connecticut,
Delaware, Massachusetts,
and Rhode Island combined, but
has fewer than 330,000 inhabitants, who are sometimes called
"Yoopers" (from "U.P.'ers") and whose speech (the "Yooper
dialect") has been heavily influenced by the large
number of Scandinavian and Canadian immigrants who settled
the area during the mining boom of the late 1800s.
The Lower
Peninsula, shaped like a mitten, is 277
miles (446 km) long from north
to south and 195 miles (314 km) from east to west and
occupies nearly two-thirds of the state's land area. The
surface of the peninsula is generally level, broken by
conical hills and glacial moraines usually not more than a
few hundred feet tall. It is divided by a low water divide
running north and south. The larger portion of the state is
on the west of this and gradually slopes toward Lake
Michigan. The highest point in the Lower Peninsula is not
definitely established but is either Briar Hill at 1,705
feet (520
m), or one of several points nearby in
the vicinity of Cadillac.
The lowest point is the surface of Lake Erie at 571 feet
(174 m).
The
geographic orientation of Michigan's peninsulas make for a
long distance between the ends of the state.
Ironwood, in the far
western Upper Peninsula, lies 630 highway miles (1,015 km)
from the Toledo, Ohio suburb of
Lambertville in the
Lower Peninsula's southeastern corner. The geographic
isolation of the Upper Peninsula from Michigan's political
and population centers makes it culturally and economically
distinct, and the feeling that Lansing and Detroit do not
care about the U.P. has led to occasional calls for
secession from Michigan and
admission as a new state called "Superior."
There are
numerous lakes and marshes in both peninsulas, and the coast
is much indented. Keweenaw,
Whitefish, and the Big and
Little Bays De Noc are the principal indentations on the
Upper Peninsula, while the
Grand and Little Traverse,
Thunder, and
Saginaw bays indent the Lower
Peninsula. After Alaska, Michigan has
the longest shoreline of any state—3,288 miles (5,326 km).
An additional 1,056 miles (1,699 km) can be added if islands
are included. This roughly equals the length of the Atlantic
Coast from Maine to Florida. The state has numerous large
islands, the principal ones being the
Manitou,
Beaver, and
Fox groups in Lake
Michigan; Isle Royale and
Grande Isle in Lake
Superior; Marquette,
Bois Blanc, and Mackinac
Islands in Lake Huron; and Neebish,
Sugar, and
Drummond Islands in
St. Mary's
River.
The state's
rivers are small, short and shallow, and few are navigable.
The principal ones include the
Au Sable,
Thunder Bay,
Cheboygan, and
Saginaw, all of which flow into
Lake Huron; the Ontonagon,
and Tahquamenon, which flow
into Lake Superior; and the
St. Joseph,
Kalamazoo,
Grand, and
Escanaba, which flow into Lake
Michigan. The state has 11,037 inland lakes and 38,575
square miles (62,067 km) of Great Lakes waters and rivers
and 1,305 square miles of inland water on top of that. No
point in Michigan is more than 6 miles (10 km) from an
inland lake or more than 85 miles (137 km) from one of the
Great Lakes.
Detroit is
the only major city in the United States from which one must
travel southward to cross the border into Canada.
Metropolitan Detroit/Ann Arbor/Flint/Windsor is also the
world's largest international metropolitan area.
The state
is home to one national park:
Isle Royale National
Park, located in Lake Superior, about 30 miles southeast
of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Other national
protected areas in the state
include:
Keweenaw National Historical Park,
Pictured Rocks
National Lakeshore,
Sleeping
Bear Dunes National Lakeshore,
Huron National Forest,
Manistee National Forest,
Hiawatha National Forest,
Ottawa National Forest
and Father
Marquette National Memorial. The
North Country
National Scenic Trail also passes through Michigan.
Michigan
also has the largest state park and
State Forest system of any state. These parks and
forests include Ludington
State Park, Tawas
Point State Park, Au
Sable State Forest, and
Mackinaw State Forest. More can be found at
Michigan state parks.
Climate
Michigan
has a humid continental
climate throughout the state, although there are two
distinct regions. The southern and central parts of the
Lower Peninsula (south of Saginaw Bay
and from the Grand Rapids
area southward) has a warmer climate with hot, humid summers
and cold, but shorter winters. The northern part of Lower
Peninsula and the entire Upper Peninsula has a more severe
climate (Koppen Dfb), with warm, humid but shorter
summers and long, cold to very cold winters. Some parts of
the state averaging high temperatures below freezing from
December through February, and into early March in the far
northern parts. During the late fall through the middle of
February the state is frequently subjected to heavy
lake effect snow. The state
receives a good amount of precipitation throughout the year,
averaging from 30-40 inches (750-1000 mm) annually.
Typically, from December through March is slightly drier,
while July through September is slightly wetter than the
rest of the year, although this difference is not extreme as
in some other states.
The entire
state averages around 30 days of thunderstorm activity per
year, and these can be severe, especially the further south
in the state one goes. The state averages 17 tornadoes a
year, and these are much more common in the extreme southern
portion of the state with portions of the southern border
nearly as vulnerable historically as parts of
Tornado alley. Further north,
in the Upper Peninsula, tornadoes are rare, but have
occurred.
Geology
The
geological formation of the state is greatly varied. Primary
boulders are found over the entire surface of the Upper
Peninsula (being principally of primitive origin), while
Secondary deposits cover the entire Lower Peninsula. The
Upper Peninsula exhibits Lower Silurian
sandstones, limestones, copper and iron bearing rocks,
corresponding to the Huronian system of Canada. The central
portion of the Lower Peninsula contains coal measures and
rocks of the Permo-Carboniferous
period. Devonian and
sub-Carboniferous deposits are scattered over the entire
state.
The soil is
of a varied composition and in large areas is very fertile,
especially in the south. However, the Upper Peninsula for
the most part is rocky and mountainous, and the soil is
unsuitable for agriculture. The climate is tempered by the
proximity of the lakes and is much milder than in other
locales with the same latitude. The principal forest trees
include basswood, maple, elm, sassafras, butternut, walnut,
poplar, hickory, oak, willow, pine, birch, beech, hemlock,
witchhazel, tamarack, cedar, locust, dogwood, and ash.
Interactive Michigan State Map
Explore the state of Michigan with the dynamic map below. You can
zoom, pan and even get a satellite map view.
Move your cursor over the markers on the map to
learn more about Michigan.
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