Introduction
DETROIT: Industrial Detroit is the nation’s car manufacturing centre. The oldest city in the Midwest, founded in 1701, it is now the tenth-largest city in the USA, with a population of just under one million (the metro area, with 5.5 million inhabitants, ranks eighth). Detroit is also a major port, linked to the Atlantic Ocean via Lake Erie and the St Lawrence Seaway.
There are many museums, art galleries, zoos and attractions in the city, and cultural events and major league sports are frequent crowd-pullers. Hitsville USA is a mecca for Motown fans, where the sounds of Diana Ross, The Temptations, and The Four Tops are immortalised. The Renaissance Center houses dozens of restaurants, a 1400-room hotel and a variety of shops, as well as being General Motors’ world headquarters. Belle Isle, the nation’s largest urban island park, offers biking, canoeing, an aquarium and a Great Lakes museum. The Cultural Center features the Detroit Historical Museum, the Detroit Science Center, the Detroit Institute of Arts (one of the largest art museums in the USA) and the Charles H Wright Museum of African-American History (the largest museum of its kind). The Detroit Zoological Park, containing more than 5000 animals in natural settings, can be toured by tractor-train. Greektown, along Monroe Avenue, offers Greek food, entertainment and speciality shops.
Excursions: The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village can be found at Dearborn, a Detroit suburb; the 12-acre indoor museum focuses on America’s industrial development and the 81-acre village comprises more than 80 buildings, a train and a riverboat. Also in Dearborn are the Automotive Hall of Fame, Spirit of Ford and Henry Ford’s Fair Lane Estate.
ELSEWHERE: Michigan’s Great Lakes coastline – along with 60,000km (36,000 miles) of rivers and 11,000 inland lakes – offers great boating, canoeing, fishing and watersports opportunities.
Cranbrook Educational Community and Cranbrook House and Gardens are located in Bloomfield Hills, 40km (25 miles) north of central Detroit. The grounds contain a beautiful country estate and landscaped gardens with an art museum, science museum, nature centre, planetarium, observatory and various educational institutions. Ann Arbor, to the west of Detroit, is the home of the University of Michigan. Traverse City, on the west side of the State, is the heart of a recreational haven featuring sand dunes, resorts, golf and skiing.
Located where the Upper and Lower Peninsulas meet, Mackinac Island is a well-known summer resort; cars are not allowed and visitors must walk, cycle or use horse-drawn carriages. Attractions include the impressive Grand Hotel and Fort Mackinac, a restored 18th-century military outpost. Isle Royale National Park is a beautiful wilderness island in Lake Superior.
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