Michigan derives its name from an Ojibwe word, ‘Mishigamaa’ which means “large water” or “large lake”.
If you love high-end cars, be it sport utility vehicles, multipurpose vehicles or simply any car, Detroit is where you belong. The city is accredited to be the car capital of the world. It is here where Henry Ford invented his first car and went ahead to make the auto assembly line.
Michigan Facts Trivia Questions and Answers
Did you know that Michigan is the only place in the world with a floating post office? The J.W. Westcott II boat can deliver your mail to ships while they are still underway.
Michigan is home to big production labels i.e. Motown Records. The company has produced renown music for Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and The Temptations.
If you’re looking for Michigan trivia, you’ve come to the right place. Below is a thrilling quiz to test your Michigan knowledge.
1. What is Michigan’s state motto?
2. Dearborn, Michigan wasn’t always a city. What township was the city cut from?
3. Which one of the five Great Lakes does not connect to Michigan?
4. What river, headquartered in Oakland County, travels through three other counties before having its mouth in Monroe County?
5. What is the only state that has more shoreline than Michigan?
6. Michigan is called the land of what?
7. What famous Michigan entrepreneur changed the American way of life when he invented the Model T automobile in Detroit?
8. The unique geography of Michigan is captured in its motto, which is “If you seek a pleasant___, look about you”. What word goes in the blank?
9. What city was Michigan’s first capital?
10. What is the state bird?
11. “Red Jacket miners had sore throats” (“Red Jacket Miners/Salt Trucks”) The Upper Peninsula village of Red Jacket or Calumet was the site of major mining activity in the late nineteenth century. The area, in the 1870s, was responsible for more than half of America’s production of which of these metals?
12. Which US president was from Michigan?
13. Michigan’s state stone is the Petoskey stone. What is a Petoskey stone?
14. What percent of the earth’s fresh surface water is in the Great Lakes?
15. Detroit was the first capital city of Michigan, but Lansing later replaced it as the capital city. Which municipality was also once the state capital?
16. How did Michigan acquire the Upper Peninsula?
17. What third most populous city in the state of Michigan shares a rather famous border with Detroit?
18. What does the word Michigan mean?
19. Where in the U.P. is the state fair held every year?
20. When you’re in Michigan, you are never more than how many miles from a Great Lake?
21. What is the name of the site in the Upper Peninsula where there are waterfalls?
22. What is the common nickname for people from the Upper Peninsula?
23. What is the tallest building in Detroit?
24. No point in Michigan is more than 6 miles from what?
25. Name the four major professional sports teams in Michigan?
26. Name the second-largest city in Michigan?
27. Dearborn is often regarded as the home of Henry Ford. Why is he famous?
28. What famous record label originated in Detroit?
29. Named for one of the largest cities in Michigan, which river connects Lake Erie to Lake St. Clair?
30. Michigan is home to what well-known cereal company?
31. Name the first university established in Michigan?
32. Which Native American chief led a rebellion against the British military occupation of present-day Michigan following the British victory in the 18th-century French and Indian War?
33. Name the Michigan-made beverage created in Detroit that was the first soda pop in the United States?
34. ““Jimmy Stewart came to Marquette County in 1959 And he was shot for two months there And all the pines wept stardust for a while And the Duke would play his soundtrack there As Preminger had cast him in the film His character was Pie-Eye” (“Marquette County, 1959”) Which movie, that also featured Lee Remick, is being described here?
35. The Mackinac Bridge is how many miles in length?
36. Michigan has four interstate highways, but one of them doesn’t actually exist in any other state but Michigan. Which one?
37. Quaker settlers named what present-day Detroit suburb for their hometown in New York in 1824?
38. What is the name of the movie from 1991 that was partially filmed in Calumet?
39. Michigan has how many international seaports?
40. In the 2003-2004 season, where did the Detroit Red Wings play?
41. Where is the ‘Worlds Largest Tire’ located?
42. What is the highest range of mountains in Michigan?
43. As of the 2010 U.S. Census what was the approximate population of Dearborn?
44. What is the meaning of the German place named Frankenmuth?
45. Also called a creek, what river is named after the French word for bark?
46. When Battle Creek was incorporated as a city in 1859, what new name was rejected by the electorate?
47. Michigan was the ____ state admitted into the Union?
48. Whitefish Point is a portion of what county?
49. This national lakeshore takes its name from an ancient Chippewa legend which declared that a certain animal was buried under the sand, waiting for her young. Name it?
50. North Manitou Island and South Manitou Island share an Indian name; what’s the meaning?
51. When completed in 1930, this nearly a mile-long landmark became the first of its kind in the world?
52. What is the origin of the place named Detroit?
53. What bridge connects Michigan with Canada at Detroit?
54. The finding of a broken ax by a survey party led to the naming of what Michigan community?
55. What percentage of Michigan’s total area is water?
56. Lake Erie is named for an Indian word having what meaning?
57. What is the busiest International Border crossing point in North America, in terms of trade volume?
58. In what Detroit suburb did the Detroit Pistons play their home games from 1988 to 2017?
59. Near what present-day city was the last great Indian battle in central Michigan fought in 1830 between the Chippewa and Sauk tribes?
60. What is the 4th largest industry in Michigan?
61. What Dickinson County community is named for the Roman god of metalworkers?
62. What city is the smallest Wayne County city in land area?
63. What is the name of the Henry Ford estate in Dearborn?
64. Neighboring the city to the east, what other municipality did Dearborn’s Fire Department agree to protect in 2013?
65. Lapeer and Lapeer County derive their names from a corruption of what two French words?
66. Which river was named for the grape plants growing along its banks?
67. What actress, born in Detroit in 1965, appeared in the TV series Twin Peaks?
68. Many Michigan cities have nicknames relating to their major industry. Which one of these Michigan cities is known as the Cereal City?
69. What suspense thriller was the first feature motion picture to be made solely in western Michigan?
70. What state (other than the Lower Peninsula of Michigan) does the U.P. border?
71. What character did Detroit-born actor Harry Morgan play on the long-running television series M*A*S*H?
72. Which fruit does Michigan produce more of than any other state?
73. What was the original name of Saginaw native Stevie Wonder?
74. What is the state reptile?
75. In what 1984 film co-starring Steve Martin did Detroit native Lily Tomlin play a wealthy spinster?
76. What is the name of Detroit’s professional baseball team?
77. In what light adventure series did Detroit native Robert Wagner star as the suave crook Alexander Mundy?
78. “The lilacs hum against my Schwinn” (“Nightfall at Electric Park”) During the early years of the twentieth century, you might well have traversed Michigan on a Schwinn but on what would you have been traveling?
79. Spencer Tracy starred with what Port Huron native in the widely acclaimed 1933 film The Power and the Glory?
80. Where in Michigan is the USS Silversides, the submarine with the third-highest number of enemy ships sunk during World War II, berthed?
81. What political party was formed at a convention held in Jackson in July of 1854?
82. 248 is the area code for what county?
83. What former governor of New York and presidential candidate, defeated by Harry Truman, was born in Owosso?
84. What type of building is the Islamic Center of America?
85. Samaquasebing, Assemoqua, and Assymoquoasibee are three alternate names for what river?
86. Which well-known Michigan Senator gave a famous speech in 1945 announcing his switch from isolationism to internationalism, and later cooperated on a bipartisan basis with the Truman Administration, following his philosophy that “politics stops at the water’s edge”?
87. Michigan almost became part of Canada. What treaty gave Michigan back to the United States?
88. In which suburb of Detroit is the Detroit Metro Airport located?
89. Where is Michigan’s geographic center?
90. Who became Michigan’s governor on January 1, 2011?
91. The first formal meeting of the Republican Party was held in which Michigan city?
92. What is Michigan’s highest point?
93. What is the airport code for Detroit Wayne County Metropolitan Airport?
94. What is the state’s fossil?
95. How many state parks are there in Michigan?
96. How much thunderstorm activity does the state average annually?
97. Name the Michigan-born actress who had her breakout film role as the title character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall?
98. Where does Michigan rank in population compared to the rest of the states?
99. Which professional tennis-playing sister was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1981?
100. The state of Michigan has more “what” than any other state?