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Michigan is a Midwestern
state of the United States
of America. It was named
after Lake Michigan, whose
name is a French adaptation
of the Ojibwe term mishigami,
meaning "large water" or
"large lake".
Michigan is the eighth most
populous state in the United
States. It has the longest
freshwater shoreline in the
world, bounded by four of
the five Great Lakes, plus
Lake Saint Clair. In 2005,
Michigan ranked third for
the number of registered
recreational boats, behind
California and Florida.
Michigan has 12,000 inland
lakes. A person is never
more than six miles (10 km)
from a natural water source,
or more than 87.2 miles (137
km) from Great Lakes
coastline.
The state is the only state
to consist entirely of two
peninsulas. The Lower
Peninsula, to which the name
Michigan was originally
applied, is sometimes dubbed
"the mitten," owing to its
shape. When asked where in
Michigan one comes from, a
resident of the Lower
Peninsula may often point to
the corresponding part of
his or her hand. The Upper
Peninsula (often referred to
as The U.P.) is separated
from the Lower Peninsula by
the Straits of Mackinac, a
five-mile (8 km)-wide
channel that joins Lake
Huron to Lake Michigan. The
Upper Peninsula (whose
residents are often called "Yoopers")
is economically important
for tourism and natural
resources.
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