Michigan

A war over Toledo

Michigan’s road to statehood ran through a border dispute. In the 1830s both Michigan Territory and the state of Ohio claimed a strip of land along their border that included the port of Toledo. Militias from both sides mobilized in 1835 in what became known as the Toledo War, though little blood was shed. Congress settled it: Michigan could become a state if it gave up the Toledo Strip, and in return it received the western Upper Peninsula. Many Michiganders thought it a bad bargain, but a December 1836 convention accepted it, and on January 26, 1837, Michigan became the 26th state. The Upper Peninsula’s iron and copper turned out to be worth far more than Toledo.

Two peninsulas

Michigan is the only state made of two separate peninsulas. The mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula holds most of the people; the rugged Upper Peninsula, across the Straits of Mackinac, stretches west toward Wisconsin. Since 1957 the two have been joined by the five-mile Mackinac Bridge, and the official pledge to the state flag calls Michigan “two beautiful peninsulas united by a bridge of steel.”

The name and the motto

Michigan takes its name from an Ojibwe word, usually written michigama or mishigami, meaning “great lake,” first used for Lake Michigan. The state motto, on the coat of arms since 1835, is Latin: Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice, “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.”

The Great Lakes State

Michigan touches four of the five Great Lakes, all but Lake Ontario, and more than 40,000 square miles of its area is water, over two-fifths of the total. “The Great Lakes State” appears on its US Mint quarter. Its other nickname, “the Wolverine State,” is older and its origin disputed. Neither is official.

A capital in the woods

Detroit was the capital for Michigan’s first decade. In 1847 the legislature chose a new capital in Lansing Township, in the middle of the Lower Peninsula, even though no village stood there yet; the new settlement was first called Michigan, Michigan. Its Capitol was designed by Elijah E. Myers, who went on to design the capitols of Texas and Colorado, and dedicated in 1879. The capital page tells the story.

Symbols of the lakes and woods

Michigan has 19 official symbols, many of them drawn from its forests and waters. The American robin is the state bird, chosen in a 1929 vote of about 200,000 people, and the apple blossom has been the state flower since 1897. The white pine, which made Michigan the nation’s leading lumber producer in the late 1800s, is the state tree. The Petoskey stone, a fossilized coral found on Lake Michigan beaches, is the state stone, and the brook trout the state fish. The dwarf lake iris, a tiny blue iris that grows only along the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron, is the state wildflower. In 2026 Michigan added its first state duck, the wood duck. See every symbol on the Michigan symbols page.

The flag shows the state coat of arms, an elk and a moose beside a shield, on blue.

Land and people

Michigan covers 96,714 square miles including its Great Lakes waters, 11th among the states. It had about 10.13 million residents in 2025, 10th in the country. It borders Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, and across the Detroit, St. Clair and St. Marys rivers it faces Ontario, Canada. Detroit, with about 649,000 people, is the largest city, followed by Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights and Ann Arbor.