A Birthday Card for Michigan

Northwest Indiana can wait until tomorrow, especially considering the significance of today.  Michigan turns 176 years young today.  Accordingly, I present to all my readers a few key shots about what our great state is.  We might have once pined away for a little bit more of Ohio and Indiana, but when we finally ended up with our current boundaries we came across with a way better package.

Michigan today is all about industry and agriculture of all sorts, with cities and towns made up of peoples from every corner of the globe, but at a more primal and natural level we are one side of the coin which we make up with Ontario in a beautiful backdrop for some dramatic and powerful lakes.  We are a southern peninsula which is often mistaken for more of the typical flat expansive farmland of the true Midwest.  Call me blindly devoted, but we are a bit more than that down here:

Taken at the top of the dune at Pyramid Point in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  

For that matter, we are an even more, yes, mountainous land of lake and borderline boreal forest in our northern peninsula:

Taken from the back porch of Epoufette Bayview Inn in Naubinway, Michigan.

And yes, we are a land of steel and furnace, and our two portions are connected by a great symbol of our industry:

Just outside of the toll plaza looking south from one shore to another.

This bridge, our "Mighty Mac", crosses our intensely lovely waters which can more than hold a candle to the most postcard perfect oceanic treasures of the Caribbean:

A little bit more of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, this time at Glen Haven.

We are not only a land of shore, however, and have amazing forests:

In the spring brush at Island Lake State Recreation Area.  Here we have a very mixed forests of everything from oaks to maples along with our state tree and dominant forest feature, especially historically, the Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus).

And savannas and even prairies:

Also from Island Lake, a picture perfect remnant of the grasslands which once hypnotically attracted settlers.

From top to bottom.  Finally, in our present age, the age of Mighty Mac and a few centuries prior, we are a land of many cultures and a passageway of exploration, commerce, and both war and peace.  While we share a border by land and lake with five other states (Illinois and Minnesota across the waves), we share a history with a neighboring country, and especially a neighboring province, that we have much in common with.  As I claimed, we are one side of a coin that could also be likened to one part of a sandwich that hugs Lake Huron.  I believe our future definitely lies in rediscovering this relationship.

From the southern tip of Belle Isle.  Seriously people, go explore this gem of a park!

Happy Birthday, Michigan!  Some say you are pure, some say you are messy, but you are home to nearly 10 million of us humans and quite a lot of deer, as well as this proud Michontarian.