Michigan is perhaps best known for the water that surrounds it. In fact, the name Michigan, which was first applied to Lake Michigan, means “big lake.” Michigan is largely surrounded by four of the Great Lakes—Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie—giving it the longest shoreline of any inland state.
Michigan is divided into two peninsulas, land masses mostly surrounded by water. Southern Michigan—the Lower Peninsula—is bordered on the south by Ohio and Indiana. The Upper Peninsula is bordered on the southwest by Wisconsin and joins Ontario far to the east. A narrow waterway called the Straits of Mackinac connects Lakes Michigan and Huron but separated Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas until they were united by the Mackinac Bridge in 1957.
Michigan’s forests were an early source of wealth. Today, Michigan is also well known for the automobiles that are manufactured in Detroit, one of the nation’s largest cities. Iron and copper, necessary in manufacturing, have long been mined in the Upper Peninsula, while oil flows from wells in the Lower Peninsula.
The western half of Upper Michigan is a part of the Laurentian upland area. The highest elevations in the state are the Huron Mountains and Porcupine Mountains near Lake Superior. Only higher parts of the Laurentian uplands are free of the glacial drift left by retreating glaciers about 10,000 years ago. Glacial bulldozers reshaped these higher areas into hilly belts, rolling plains, and uplands. The retreating ice blocked drainage channels, leaving thousands of undrained depressions that make Michigan a state of many lakes, swamps, and marshes.
But Michigan’s inland wetlands combined don’t equal the Great Lakes. Glaciers deepened Lake Superior and glacial tongues dug depressions occupied by Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. When the glaciers melted, these depressions were flooded to form today’s Great Lakes, which are important transportation routes.
Glaciers scoured the northern half of the Lower Peninsula to the bedrock, leaving poor soils. But fairly rich loamy soils in the southern half make this a good agricultural region known particularly for dairying. Fruit is grown along the Lake Michigan shore.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - 
