Personal Challenge 2018 - Week 26

This is the 26th week of my personal 50-week States of the Union Challenge. Each week I research one of the 50 United States (in the order they attained statehood). I share tidbits of information about the state here on my blog and I create a card that is inspired by something about that state.

This week's state (the 26th one to attain statehood) is...

Michigan

Date of Statehood: January 26, 1937

Michigan touches four out of the five great lakes, more than any other state: Huron, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

No point within the entire state is more than six miles from a lake.

In the city of Mackinac Island, Michigan, cars have been banned since 1898. 

The J.W. Westcott II, which operates out of Detroit, is the world's only floating post office, as it delivers mail to ships as they pass under the Ambassador Bridge.

Detroit residents were the first in the nation to have phone numbers. It seems that by 1879, the city had grown so large that operator were no longer able to route the calls by name alone.

The Saugatuck Chain Ferry, built in 1838, is the only remaining hand-cranked chain ferry in the U.S. 

Traverse City is the tart (i.e., pie) cherry capital of the world, and hosts the week-long National Cherry Festival each July. 

Battle Creek is the cereal capital of the world due to the presence of the Kellogg Company. Kellogg's, by the way, offered its first mail-in cereal box prize back in 1909.

Vernor's Ginger Ale, which was created by a Detroit druggist, is possibly the oldest soft drink still on the market. 

The Ella Ellenwood, a schooner that used to transport lumber from Montague to Milwaukee, went down in a storm in 1901. While the ship was not recovered, its nameplate did manage to float back to Montague all on its lonesome a year later.

The Detroit metro area sits atop a gigantic salt mine. According to some estimates, there's enough salt down there to last for 70 million years at the world's current rate of consumption. 

70 percent of all potatoes grown in Michigan, become potato chips, making them the No. 1 state for chipping production. 

The Kalamazoo Mall was the first outdoor pedestrian shopping mall in the United States.

The world’s largest weathervane is located in Montague. It stands forty-eight-feet tall and weighs thirty-five hundred pounds. Its wind arrow is twenty-six-feet long.

The first air-conditioned car was manufactured in 1939 by Detroit's Packard Motor Car Company.

A one-mile stretch of Detroit road was paved with concrete in 1908, making it the world's first concrete-paved road.

Oscoda claims to be the official hometown of the literary Paul Bunyan, as the first published story about him appeared in the Oscoda Press in 1906. Oscoda puts on an annual Paul Bunyan Festival each September.

French-Canadian lumberjack Fabian Fournier, who worked for a lumber company in the Grayling area in the late 1800s, was said to be an inspiration for the legendary Paul Bunyan.

 Ossineke has a giant statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe, his blue ox.

A Michigan Judge held himself in contempt after smartphone rang in court.

 A Roseville man who dropped a couple of F-bombs after falling out of his canoe was convicted in 1999 under a law that had been on the books since 1897 prohibiting “indecent, immoral, obscene, vulgar or insulting language in the presence or hearing of any woman or child.” In 2002 the conviction was overturned by the Michigan Court of Appeals, and the law was struck down at the same time.

Here are some other Michigan laws...

In 2008, the city of Flint passed a law that gave police the authority to arrest anyone whose pants sagged so low as to expose their undies or bare butts.

Automatic (switchblade, etc.) knives are illegal to own in Michigan, except for one-armed people.

Persons may not be drunk on trains.

It is against the law to sell cars on Sundays.

Willfully destroying your old radio is prohibited in Detroit.

It is illegal to let your pig run free in Detroit unless it has a ring in its nose. 

It is also against Detroit law for a man to scowl at his wife on Sunday. (Now I like that one! The only thing that would make that better is if it were a law EVERY day.)

No person in Grand Haven may throw an abandoned hoop skirt into any street or on any sidewalk, under penalty of a five- dollar fine for each offense.

I've decided to go with this bit of Michigan information for my card's inspiration... Michigan actually has a lot of firsts when it comes to education, both formal and informal. For instance, the state was the first in the United States to make establishing public libraries a part of its state Constitution. It was also the first to guarantee every child in the state a free high-school education.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Supplies Used

Stamp: Kraftin Kimmie Smarty Pants stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Papers Recollections White and SU More Mustard CS and all other papers from my scrap file

Die: MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle

Embellishment: SU Ribbon