Michigan turns 188 on Sunday. Here are reasons to celebrate our 'water winter wonderland'
Michigan turns 188 on Jan. 26, and it already has matching left and right mittens.
Michigan residents will have to make do with five Great Lakes, the birthplace of the Motown, tart cherries, 400-plus breweries, 103 state parks, 300 waterfalls, and too many other attractions to keep track of.
Native Americans have lived in what is now Michigan for millennia. After Europeans came to North America, the state passed between the French and English before becoming part of the U.S. On Jan., 26, 1837, Michigan officially joined the union, surrendering a bit of Ohio (yay) for the entire Upper Peninsula.
Michigan, known as the Wolverine State, was the 26th state to join the union. The capital is Lansing, since 1847; prior to that, Detroit served as capital. Michigan now is home to about 10 million people.
If you need a reason to celebrate, here are 10, just in case:
In Rudyard Township, in the eastern Upper Peninsula, snowy owls make themselves at home in the winter. The township and the Michigan House passed resolutions calling the township the Snowy Owl Capital of Michigan — they even have a sign, so that makes it pretty official.
Snowy owls spend summers far north of the Arctic Circle hunting lemmings, ptarmigan, and other prey in 24-hour daylight, All About Birds says. Sometimes the largest North American owl flies from the deep north to the Upper Peninsula.
With bright white feathers and striking yellow eyes, they have a reputation for being difficult to spot, but the chances are greater in Rudyard.
Paradise, in the Upper Peninsula and Hell, in southeast Michigan, are about 240 miles apart. Google maps suggests it's about a five-hour drive, mostly down Interstate 75 and U.S. 23, but as everyone knows, a lot of things can distract you on your way to Hell and make the trip longer.
The late Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot memorialized the Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in song after the ship sank in November 1975 in Lake Superior. But the ship certainly isn't the only one to founder in the lakes' late-season storms.
"An estimated 6,000 vessels were lost on the Great Lakes with approximately 1,500 of these ships located in Michigan waters," according to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy website.
At Whitefish Point, at the end of the road north of Paradise, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum offers tours of shipwreck exhibits, including the Edmund Fitzgerald. The site also includes one of the oldest lighthouses on Lake Superior, operating since 1861.
In Michigan's thumb, Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park, near Cass City, protects and interprets Michigan's largest known collection petroglyphs created by Indigenous peoples.
The carvings — called ezhibiigaadek asin, "written on stone," in the Anishinabe language — remain culturally significant to many Anishinabek.
"Michigan is one of 10 states with the largest population of Native Americans. The Ottawa, Ojibway, Chippewa, Potawatomi and others have a significant place in Michigan's history, both as groups and individuals," according to the Library of Michigan says.
In Baraga County, northeast of L'Anse, is Michigan's highest point, Mount Arvon. The peak stands 1,979.238 feet above sea level. It's not the easiest place to reach, and four-wheel drive is definitely recommended.
It's not clear how the mountain got its name, but it lies within Arvon Township. The township, according to Wikipedia, is named for an area in Wales.
Not far to the northwest is Houghton-Douglass Falls, which falls 110 feet from top to bottom in Houghton County. The falls are on state land, but not officially within a state park. The area remains mostly undeveloped.
Woody the Woodchuck is among Michigan's weather prognosticating representatives. Woody lives at the Howell Nature Center's Wild Wonders Wildlife Park in Marion Township and word is he's prepping for his upcoming Feb. 2 decision — a shorter winter or more cold weather. We're all watching closely.
On the Detroit River near Detroit, the J.W. Westcott acts as a post office on water, delivering mail to large cargo ships passing by since 1847.
President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order declassifying a large number of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Many hope the release will clear up lingering questions about Nov. 22, 1963.
At the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, guests can view cars used to transport previous U.S. presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
The 1961 Lincoln Continental presidential limousine that Kennedy was riding in with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connolly when he was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963, is a major attraction.
"Michigan's coast accounts for approximately 62% of the total coastline of the Great Lakes basin," theDepartment of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said
The impressive freshwater shoreline is the longest in the U.S. and is home to more than 300 coastal communities.
With all that shoreline comes the need for lighthouses to keep ships away from danger. Michigan has more than any other state.
According to singersoom.com and Wikipedia, there are dozens of Michigan natives who have excelled in the music industry, including:
Stevie Wonder, from Saginaw
Aretha Franklin, from Detroit
Eminem, from Detroit
Madonna, from Bay City
Bob Seger, from Detroit
Iggy Pop, from Muskegon
Smokey Robinson, from Detroit
Diana Ross, from Detroit
Big Sean, from Detroit
Grand Funk Railroad, from Flint
Ted Nugent, from Detroit
Alice Cooper, from Detroit
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan celebrates 188 years of statehood. 10 things to know about
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CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
‘They don't want the rabble anymore:' Why Europe is rising up against mass tourism
Source: CNN As protestors have taken to the streets across Spain, disrupted a billionaire's wedding in Venice, and even caused a shutdown of the Louvre in the shape of a staff mutiny about overcrowding, Noel Josephides has been watching with one phrase on his mind: I told you so . 'I could have told you that would happen 10 years ago,' he says. 'And I said so. I said, 'This is going to get out of control.'' Josephides is the longstanding chairman of Sunvil, a UK-based tour operator that has been sending comfortably-off Brits on vacation since 1970. He's also a former chairman of ABTA and AITO, both UK travel industry bodies, which makes him one of the big beasts of European tourism. And he says he saw Europe's current overtourism meltdown coming. 'I said there'll be enormous problems going forward,' he recalls of a speech he delivered to the ABTA annual convention, held in Dubrovnik, in 2013. He delivered that warning as the sharing economy — spearheaded in travel by Airbnb — was mushrooming across Europe. His concern, however, was not just short-term rentals. What he saw coming was a perfect storm: rapidly expanding budget airlines working in tandem with proliferating short-term rentals to create vast new vacation capacity, driving down prices and ushering in a new era of large-scale budget travel. Of course, as a tour operator, Josephides works in direct competition with short-term rentals and the independent travel-planning that budget airlines encourage. Yet today, he seems like a Cassandra figure — he foresaw the chaos, but no one acted. Now his worst fears have come to pass. 'The local populations are quite right,' he says about the spiraling protests. 'It's out of control. I'm on the side of the protestors, even though it affects my business.' The situation in Europe this summer is a far cry from the empty streets and clear waters of the summer of 2020. During the pandemic, many destinations vowed to reinvent tourism for the better. But once travel restrictions were lifted, things quickly reverted to the old ways — and in many cases got worse, thanks to what came to be known as 'revenge travel.' For some locals, the memory of lockdown has taken on a halcyon glow. 'I remember walking in the streets very close to Las Ramblas and hearing birds singing and church bells,' says Maite Domingo Alegre, who lives in Barcelona. 'I'd never realized the bells tolled. But I never get to hear them anymore. Tourism has brought so much noise it's unbelievable.' An English teacher and associate professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Domingo Alegre lives in the city's historic center near the cathedral and works near Las Ramblas. She says her city has changed beyond recognition. 'We've always had tourism, and mass tourism, but over the last 10 to 15 years this has changed dramatically,' she says. 'It's not seasonal anymore, it's 365 days a year. And the visitors are much more than the number of inhabitants.' Crowded streets are one thing; the knock-on effects, she says, are worse. 'Most of the shops — even food shops, clothes shops, restaurants, everything in the center — is basically addressed to tourists,' she says. 'Prices have gone up. Airbnb basically evicted many locals. Most of my friends have fled the neighborhood because they can't afford to live there anymore.' The pandemic, she adds, intensified the problem, attracting remote workers from across Europe. 'They don't really mingle with the locals. They're not interested in Catalan or even Spanish culture. They think it's cheaper, and they have nice food and cheap drinks, so most bars and restaurants are also thought of for them.' In Venice, it's the same story. The local pop musician Ornello's latest video shows him dressed as an astronaut, wading through the summer crowds. In his real-life identity, Alessio Centenaro, he feels equally out of place in his hometown. 'I'm a cyclist and on Sundays I take my bike from Piazzale Roma (Venice's road terminus). I'm going out and I'm going against all the tourists arriving on the island and I feel like I'm a salmon going against the flow. Sometimes when you're surrounded by tourists, with hundreds all around you, you feel like you're the foreigner.' Venice has always been a city of tourists, he adds, but it also once had a sizable resident population. 'There are 48,000 people officially, but nobody says what's the percentage of old people. I'd say it's perhaps 70% over 70. If they will live another 15 years, what will happen then?' For the past five decades, Josephides has watched destinations go from charming to overcrowded. The trajectory, he says, is nearly always the same. First a boutique tour operator like Sunvil identifies a little-visited destination that seems perfect for its clients — people in search of a vacation where they won't be surrounded by other vacationers. It'll add that destination to its books, usually chartering a weekly flight to get clients there initially. And so the first few seasons will be a halcyon period of relatively few visitors. They enjoy the peace and quiet; the residents enjoy the money they inject into the local economy. But then word will spread. A budget airline — because it's low-cost carriers, not legacy ones, who invest in lesser-known places — will start operating to the destination. The following year, its rivals follow suit, eager not to miss out. What if Jet2 knows something we don't? Suddenly, there's a surfeit of planes going to the destination, and to fill them airlines slash fares, meaning that the budget market becomes the 'volume market,' as Josephides puts it. Accommodation strains to keep pace with the growing number of visitors, prompting locals to invest in short-term rentals. Soon, that 'secret' destination is swamped — not just by the early, more affluent pioneers, but by that volume market, who fly in on the budget airlines, stay in an Airbnb and generally spend less locally. So the first wave moves on to a new place, and the cycle begins again. Josephides earmarks the Greek island of Samos as one of the next destinations to go through this cycle. This year there is one direct weekly flight from the UK, he says. 'Next year TUI (a German travel company) have Thursday and Sunday. Jet2 have put on four flights: two Manchester, one Birmingham and one Stansted. So wait to see Ryanair and easyJet pile in.' The mass market players, he says, 'move in like a vacuum cleaner. The nature of the island will change but local governments do not understand what will happen until it is too late.' Even established hot spots can be victims of their own popularity. Airports on the Greek islands of Corfu and Crete, Josephides notes, are inundated with flights. 'The volume market won't go to destinations that aren't known, so you get this bottleneck of cheap flights fueling the likes of Airbnb. The local population are quite right — it's out of control.' An Airbnb spokesperson said in a statement: 'Airbnb offers a different way to travel that better spreads guests and benefits to more communities. The fact is that overtourism is getting worse in cities where Airbnb is heavily restricted: in Amsterdam or Barcelona, the introduction of stringent restrictions on short term rentals have coincided with a steep increase in guest nights driven by hotels, and a surge in accommodation prices for travelers. Cities that want to have a significant impact on overtourism should embrace tourism that supports families and communities.' They added that 59% of 'guest nights' sold in the EU on Airbnb in 2024 are in destinations outside cities, while their research published in June shows that the majority of tourists still choose hotels. VRBO, another major short-term rental provider, did not respond to a request for comment. Pedro Homar knows this pressure well. As tourism director for Visit Palma, he's caught between visitors behaving badly in the Spanish city, and residents demanding action. 'We need to ensure that tourism is a sustainable industry, not just from an environmental point of view but also from a social and economic point of view,' he says. 'Our economy depends on tourism, so we either make sure we're physically sustainable or we will not have a future.' Since the pandemic, Palma has stopped promoting itself outright. Instead, it runs 'image campaigns' to shape perceptions — even running ads to call out antisocial behavior in certain resorts. In 2022, the city capped cruise ship arrivals at three a day, even though the port can handle six (Barcelona has followed suit, announcing in July that it will close two of its seven cruise terminals from 2026). It banned short-term rental apartments and Airbnbs in city-center residential buildings and has set a cap of 12,000 hotel beds: for a new hotel to open, another must close. Palma has also built up a 50-million-euro ($58 million) fund to buy and remove outdated hotels from circulation — typically cheaper properties that tend to attract budget tourists. 'It's a way of taking out of the market all these obsolete and old hotels that are no longer competitive and not the kind of product that we want for the destination,' Homar says. Palma's approach raises a question: Who has the 'right' to travel? Some destinations have long used high costs to deter mass tourism. Bhutan charges a $100-a-day 'sustainable development fund' fee. A gorilla-trekking permit in Rwanda costs $1,500 per person. Even Venice's 10-euro day-tripper fee has drawn criticism from locals for selling the city to the wealthy. Homar argues that destinations should have the right to choose their visitors, likening it to deciding whom to invite to dinner. 'I really do believe that as mature destinations, we have the right to choose the tourists that we want, and don't want,' he says. 'We want tourists that respect our personality, our way of living, our traditions. 'If you are thinking of coming over without a respectful point of view, we say, respectfully, we don't need you.' Josephides is blunter. 'They don't want the rabble anymore,' he says. 'It sounds awful to say so, and everyone's entitled to a holiday, but the numbers just keep growing. The whole thing is out of control. I can understand the democratization but it's up to the destination if they want clients without any money,' he adds. 'I'd like to drive a Ferrari, but I can't afford it.' For now, he says, most European destinations seem focused on capping numbers rather than pricing out budget travelers entirely. Restoring the goodwill of residents is just as important as tackling the crowds. 'A city where residents are not satisfied is a city that doesn't work,' says Ruben Santopietro, CEO of Visit Italy, a marketing company for various destinations across the country. 'It loses its identity completely. Residents feel excluded and neighborhoods become touristic.' Born in Naples, which saw protests over lack of housing and growing short-term rental numbers in March, Santopietro has watched his hometown surge in popularity — and housing prices — over the past decade. He warns that if growth continues unchecked, 'in five years, 50% of the città d'arte (Italian cities of culture) will become inaccessible.' Rome, Florence and Naples, he says, are already 'suffocated by tourism' almost to the point of no return. Visitors, he adds, actually want locals around. 'Venice belongs to the Venetians. If locals aren't there, they won't go. Putting residents at the center of tourism models is the only way to preserve our cities from becoming open-air museums.' Homar agrees, echoing the same phrase — 'putting residents at the center of the tourist strategy' — when talking about Palma's new five-year plan, adopted in 2023. Some hotels the city buys will be replaced with green spaces or converted to housing. In November, Palma will launch free cultural activities for locals — organ recitals, children's days in the old atelier of artist Joan Miró, theater concerts organized by Spanish national radio stations, guided architectural walks around the city — to 'uplift the sense of belonging and the pride of being a citizen.' 'All these initiatives will be in spaces that residents for some reason believe are just for tourists,' he says. 'We're seeing that the sense of belonging that residents used to have about being in Palma, they were slowly losing that and we need to change that dynamic.' Redistributing visitors can also help. The problem in Italy, Santopietro says, isn't that the country can't handle the numbers — it's that everyone goes to the same places. This summer, his agency launched a campaign, 'The 99% of Italy,' encouraging travelers to visit lesser-known destinations from Genoa to Tropea (some of which were their clients, but not all). 'We used social media platforms as they have created these imbalances,' he says, adding that they expect tangible results in the long term, as regional marketing campaigns take longer to take effect. Santopietro says that even in the busiest destinations, steps can be taken to disperse visitors. He suggests incentives — for example, discounted tickets to Rome's Colosseum for those who've already visited the ancient coastal town of Ostia Antica. In the short term, protests are likely to spread, says Estrella Diaz Sanchez, associate professor of marketing at Spain's University of Castilla-La Mancha. 'Some locals are frustrated about the number of tourists they receive, but I think the main factor is skyrocketing rents, driven by short-term holiday lets, pushing locals out of the housing markets,' she says. 'The solution isn't to reject tourism; it's to make it more inclusive and respectful.' Even Josephides, the tourism industry doomsayer, thinks recovery is possible. He points to Estoril, on the Lisbon coast, which in the 1970s was a mass-market destination. Authorities decided to push it upmarket, and succeeded. 'You can recover, but it takes time,' he says. 'It's much easier for a destination to control its growth rather than repair it afterwards.' See Full Web Article
7 hours ago
Does Paris have too many tourists? A European crisis comes to Montmartre
PARIS -- When Olivier Baroin moved into an apartment in Montmartre about 15 years ago, it felt like he was living in a village in the heart of Paris. Not anymore. Stores for residents are disappearing, along with the friendly atmosphere, he says. In their place are hordes of people shooting selfies, shops selling tourist trinkets and cafés whose seating spills into the narrow cobbled streets as overtourism takes its toll. Baroin has had enough. He put his apartment up for sale after local streets were designated pedestrian-only while accommodating the growing number of visitors. 'I told myself that I had no other choice but to leave since, as I have a disability, it's even more complicated when you can no longer take your car, when you have to call a taxi from morning to night," he told The Associated Press. From Venice to Barcelona to Amsterdam, European cities are struggling to absorb surging numbers of tourists. Some residents in one of Paris' most popular neighborhoods for tourists are now pushing back. A black banner strung between two balconies in Montmartre reads, in English: 'Behind the postcard: locals mistreated by the Mayor.' Another, in French, says: 'Montmartre residents resisting.' Atop the hill where the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur crowns the city's skyline, residents lament what they call the 'Disneyfication' of the once-bohemian slice of Paris. The basilica says it now attracts up to 11 million people a year — even more than the Eiffel Tower — while daily life in the neighborhood has been overtaken by tuk-tuks, tour groups, photo queues and short-term rentals. 'Now, there are no more shops at all, there are no more food shops, so everything must be delivered,' said 56-year-old Baroin, a member of a residents' protest group called Vivre a Montmartre, or Living in Montmartre. The unrest echoes tensions across town at the Louvre Museum, where staff in June staged a brief wildcat strike over chronic overcrowding, understaffing and deteriorating conditions. The Louvre logged 8.7 million visitors in 2024, more than double what its infrastructure was designed to handle. Paris, a city of just over 2 million residents if you count its sprawling suburbs, welcomed 48.7 million tourists in 2024, a 2% increase from the previous year. Sacré-Cœur, the most visited monument in France in 2024, and the surrounding Montmartre neighborhood have turned into what some locals call an open-air theme park. Local staples like butchers, bakeries and grocers are vanishing, replaced by ice-cream stalls, bubble-tea vendors and souvenir T-shirt stands. Paris authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Visitors seemed largely to be enjoying the packed streets on a sunny Tuesday this week. 'For the most part, all of Paris has been pretty busy, but full of life, for sure," said American tourist Adam Davidson. "Coming from Washington, D.C., which is a lively city as well, I would say this is definitely full of life to a different degree for sure.' In Barcelona, thousands have taken to the streets this year, some wielding water pistols, demanding limits on cruise ships and short-term tourist rentals. Venice now charges an entry fee for day-trippers and caps visitor numbers. And in Athens, authorities are imposing a daily limit on visitors to the Acropolis, to protect the ancient monument from record-breaking tourist crowds. Urban planners warn that historic neighborhoods risk becoming what some critics call 'zombie cities' — picturesque but lifeless, their residents displaced by short-term visitors. Paris is trying to mitigate the problems by cracking down on short term rentals and unlicensed properties. But tourism pressures are growing. By 2050, the world's population is projected to reach nearly 10 billion, according to United Nations estimates. With the global middle class expanding, low-cost flights booming and digital platforms guiding travelers to the same viral landmarks, many more visitors are expected in iconic cities like Paris. The question now, residents say, is whether any space is left for those who call it home.
San Francisco Chronicle
9 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Does Paris have too many tourists? A European crisis comes to Montmartre
PARIS (AP) — When Olivier Baroin moved into an apartment in Montmartre about 15 years ago, it felt like he was living in a village in the heart of Paris. Not anymore. Stores for residents are disappearing, along with the friendly atmosphere, he says. In their place are hordes of people shooting selfies, shops selling tourist trinkets and cafés whose seating spills into the narrow cobbled streets as overtourism takes its toll. Baroin has had enough. He put his apartment up for sale after local streets were designated pedestrian-only while accommodating the growing number of visitors. 'I told myself that I had no other choice but to leave since, as I have a disability, it's even more complicated when you can no longer take your car, when you have to call a taxi from morning to night," he told The Associated Press. Overtourism in European cities From Venice to Barcelona to Amsterdam, European cities are struggling to absorb surging numbers of tourists. Some residents in one of Paris' most popular neighborhoods for tourists are now pushing back. A black banner strung between two balconies in Montmartre reads, in English: 'Behind the postcard: locals mistreated by the Mayor.' Another, in French, says: 'Montmartre residents resisting.' Atop the hill where the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur crowns the city's skyline, residents lament what they call the 'Disneyfication' of the once-bohemian slice of Paris. The basilica says it now attracts up to 11 million people a year — even more than the Eiffel Tower — while daily life in the neighborhood has been overtaken by tuk-tuks, tour groups, photo queues and short-term rentals. 'Now, there are no more shops at all, there are no more food shops, so everything must be delivered,' said 56-year-old Baroin, a member of a residents' protest group called Vivre a Montmartre, or Living in Montmartre. The unrest echoes tensions across town at the Louvre Museum, where staff in June staged a brief wildcat strike over chronic overcrowding, understaffing and deteriorating conditions. The Louvre logged 8.7 million visitors in 2024, more than double what its infrastructure was designed to handle. A postcard under pressure Paris, a city of just over 2 million residents if you count its sprawling suburbs, welcomed 48.7 million tourists in 2024, a 2% increase from the previous year. Sacré-Cœur, the most visited monument in France in 2024, and the surrounding Montmartre neighborhood have turned into what some locals call an open-air theme park. Local staples like butchers, bakeries and grocers are vanishing, replaced by ice-cream stalls, bubble-tea vendors and souvenir T-shirt stands. Paris authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Visitors seemed largely to be enjoying the packed streets on a sunny Tuesday this week. 'For the most part, all of Paris has been pretty busy, but full of life, for sure," said American tourist Adam Davidson. "Coming from Washington, D.C., which is a lively city as well, I would say this is definitely full of life to a different degree for sure.' Europe's breaking point In Barcelona, thousands have taken to the streets this year, some wielding water pistols, demanding limits on cruise ships and short-term tourist rentals. Venice now charges an entry fee for day-trippers and caps visitor numbers. And in Athens, authorities are imposing a daily limit on visitors to the Acropolis, to protect the ancient monument from record-breaking tourist crowds. Urban planners warn that historic neighborhoods risk becoming what some critics call 'zombie cities' — picturesque but lifeless, their residents displaced by short-term visitors. Paris is trying to mitigate the problems by cracking down on short term rentals and unlicensed properties. But tourism pressures are growing. By 2050, the world's population is projected to reach nearly 10 billion, according to United Nations estimates. With the global middle class expanding, low-cost flights booming and digital platforms guiding travelers to the same viral landmarks, many more visitors are expected in iconic cities like Paris.
