What is the capital of Michigan?

Have you known that the capital of Michigan is Lansing?

Until 1847, it was a quiet small village with about twenty residents, situated near the confluence of the Grand River and the Red Cedar River, but that year the Michigan House of Representatives privately chose the Township of Lansing as the capital of the state.

The reason for this strange decision was that the authorities didn’t want the events of 1812 to repeat when Detroit, the former capital and the largest city of the state, located close to Canada, was captured by the British.

Interestingly, Lansing was not even among the candidates to become the state capital. Many other towns lobbied hard to win this designation. Unable to reach a consensus, the Michigan House of Representatives decided in favor of a small and unknown locality.

At first, Lansing was renamed as Michigan City, but later it was decided to return the former name. Now the city’s population is more than 114,000 people (2010). The Lansing metropolitan area's major industries are government, education, insurance, healthcare, and automobile manufacturing.

The city is also famous for the Michigan State University located in East Lansing. It has the largest land campus in the United States and is home to several nationally and internationally recognized academic and research oriented programs.