"If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you."—Michigan motto
Michigan, the nation's twenty-sixth state, entered the Union on this date in 1837.The state's name is derived from a Chippewa Indian word meaning "large lake." Of the forty-nine continental states, Michigan is the only one split into two large land segments—the sparsely populated but mineral-rich Upper Peninsula, which slices eastward from northern Wisconsin between Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula, which reaches northward from Indiana and Ohio.
This watercolor by William Henry Holmes captures the natural beauty of this "pleasant peninsula."
Pictured: William Henry Holmes, 1846–1933, Michigan, 1932, watercolor, 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Anna Bartsch Dunne.
Michigan, the nation's twenty-sixth state, entered the Union on this date in 1837.The state's name is derived from a Chippewa Indian word meaning "large lake." Of the forty-nine continental states, Michigan is the only one split into two large land segments—the sparsely populated but mineral-rich Upper Peninsula, which slices eastward from northern Wisconsin between Lakes Superior and Michigan, and the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula, which reaches northward from Indiana and Ohio.