Michigan

Michigan holds two very different identities within one state: the busier, industrial energy of Detroit, and the remote, close-knit communities of the rural Upper Peninsula, shaped by early Cornish and Finnish mining families. The state calls itself “The Great Lakes State” because it touches four of the five Great Lakes, giving it more freshwater coastline than almost anywhere else in the country.

Detroit, known as “Motor City,” transformed car manufacturing under Henry Ford and later became known for techno music, a history still reflected in the Coney Dog, a hot dog topped with meat sauce that remains a local point of pride.

The rivalry between University of Michigan and Michigan State runs deep across the state, and Mackinac Island, which bans cars entirely, preserves a slower pace of life.