Michigan

Michigan (, roughly MISH-uh-gun) is a Midwestern state of the United States of America, located in the east north central states, as defined by the United States Census Bureau. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigami, meaning "large water" or "large lake". Bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair, Michigan has the longest freshwater shoreline in the world. In 2005, Michigan ranked third for the number of registered recreational boats, behind California and Florida. A person in Michigan is never more than 85 miles (137 km) from open Great Lakes water and is never more than six miles (10 km) from a natural water source. The Great Lakes that border Michigan from east to west are Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Michigan is the only state to consist entirely of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula of Michigan, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is sometimes dubbed "the... full article at wikipedia