Michigan Trivia & Tidbits

Looking for Michigan trivia? Try our list Michigan little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The nation's oldest ladder company is the Michigan Ladder Co., which has manufactured stepladders and extension ladders since 1901 in Ypsilanti (pop. 22,362).

first appeared: 11/1/2009

When the 1896 Clare (pop. 3,173) City Bakery was threatened with closure in July, the Clare Police Department came to the rescue. Nine police officers bought the bakery and changed the name to Cops & Doughnuts.

first appeared: 10/18/2009

The Cherry Hut has been serving hunks of homemade cherry pie since 1922, when James and Dorothy Kraker opened a roadside pie stand as an outlet for cherries from their orchard. Today, the hut in Beulah (pop. 363) is a full-blown restaurant famous for its cherry pie.

first appeared: 10/4/2009

On Valentine's Day, the post offices in Romeo (pop. 3,721) and Juliette, Ga., team up for a postage cancellation representing the Shakespearean sweethearts who share the towns' names.

first appeared: 9/20/2009

Motorists can't help but slow and take time to admire the picturesque setting and Fallasburg Covered Bridge spanning Flat River near Lowell (pop. 4,013). Signs warn of a "$5 fine for riding or driving on this bridge faster than a walk."

first appeared: 9/6/2009

Jim Buist has been cutting hair at Jim's Barber Shop in Kalamazoo (pop. 77,145) for more than 40 years, but more impressive is the fact that he's legally blind.

first appeared: 8/23/2009

Nicknamed "The Big House," Michigan Stadium at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor seats 106,201 and is one of the nation's largest stadiums.

first appeared: 8/9/2009

Legendary thoroughbred Seabiscuit was considered a mediocre racehorse until winning his first major stakes race, the Governor's Handicap, at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in September 1936. A statue of the horse, who triumphed in 1938 over Triple Crown winner War Admiral, stands at the fairgrounds.

first appeared: 7/26/2009

—In 1923, Bay City (pop. 36,817) became one of the first cities in the United States to replace all of its streetcars with buses.

first appeared: 7/12/2009

—While studying the states and their flags in her first-grade class, Rebecca Collins-Pfeiffer, of Mount Pleasant (pop. 25,946), wondered why Michigan's flag wasn't flying at the nearby Isabella County Building. The 7-year-old wrote a heartfelt and convincing letter to the county commission and in April helped raise the state and county flags at the building.

first appeared: 6/28/2009

—Marine life artist Robert Wyland, known simply as Wyland, completed his 100th Whaling Wall mural of life-size whales and other ocean life last year. Wyland, who was born in 1956 in Detroit, has painted Whaling Walls in more than 70 cities worldwide.

first appeared: 6/14/2009

—Founded in 1928, the Metamora (pop. 4,184) Hunt continues the tradition of fox hunting, with hounds and riders going out twice weekly in the fall and winter to hunt fox and coyote.

first appeared: 5/31/2009

—Lurch, a 200-pound English mastiff, was honored by the Livingston County chapter of the American Red Cross last year for donating blood 20 times. Lurch's blood has helped dozens of dogs, including one who got into rat poison.

first appeared: 5/17/2009

—Known as the "speed king," Bob Burman set a land speed world record of 141 mph in 1911 on Daytona Beach in Florida. Burman was born in 1884 in Imlay City (pop. 3,869).

first appeared: 5/3/2009

–Ernest Hemingway's short story Big Two–Hearted River is based on his experiences fishing the Fox River near Seney (pop. 180), but he used the more poetic name of the northeastern Big Two–Hearted River.

first appeared: 4/19/2009

—George Martin, a shoe cobbler from Germany, founded George Martin & Sons in 1846 in Monroe (pop. 22,076). The family still owns Martin's Shoe House Inc., which is the oldest shoe store in its original location in the state and possibly the United States. The store also includes a shoe-repair shop.

first appeared: 4/5/2009

—The only U.S. president who was an Eagle Scout was Gerald R. Ford, who joined the Boy Scouts in 1924 in Grand Rapids. Life-size statues of Ford as a 16-year-old Eagle Scout stand at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and the DeVos Family Center for Scouting in Grand Rapids.

first appeared: 3/22/2009

—Richard Burke, 62, of Flint, returned with a nice souvenir last year from a visit to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. Burke unearthed a 4.68-carat white diamond. He named it “Sweet Caroline” after his wife, Carol, and the Neil Diamond song.

first appeared: 3/8/2009

—With 3,000 parking spaces, the Ford-Wyoming Drive-in Theater in Dearborn (pop. 97,775), which opened in 1950, is one of the world’s largest drive-ins. The theater is open year-round and supplies heaters to moviegoers during cold weather.

first appeared: 2/22/2009

—In the 1890s, Sunday school teacher Henry Haskell, alarmed at the number of boys loafing around billiard rooms, patented the Carrom game board, still manufactured today by the Carrom Co. in Ludington (pop. 8,357).

first appeared: 2/8/2009

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