Michigan Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

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

With 13,500 acres of vineyards, Michigan is the fourth- largest grape-growing state, behind California, New York, and Washington, according to the Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

Michigan’s Ottawa National Forest in the Upper Peninsula provided the holiday tree—a 74-foot-tall white spruce—to the U.S. Capitol in 2001.

first appeared: 12/15/2002

Michigan leads the nation in registration of snowmobiles with 295,703.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

Tired of having a wrinkled coat because of a shortage of coat hooks at work, Albert Parkhouse of Jackson (pop. 36,316) twisted two wires into ovals for his coat shoulders, added a hook, and invented the wire coat hanger in 1903.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

Established in 1911, Owasippe Scout Reservation near Whitehall (pop. 2,884) is the nation’s oldest Boy Scout camp.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

The Whittemore Speedway, built by the town of Whittemore (pop. 476) in 1948 for stock car racing, is the state’s oldest.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

Novelist Ernest Hemingway learned to hunt and fish during childhood summers at the family cabin on Lake Walloon near Petoskey (pop. 6,080).

first appeared: 11/10/2002

Floyd Mattice, a student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, gave the first “live” play-by-play of a college football game Oct. 31, 1903. From a phone booth atop a 40-foot tower on the 55-foot yard line in the Minnesota stadium, Mattice reported the plays to fans in Michigan.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

Community volunteers built snow houses last January in Houghton (pop. 7,010) and Hancock (pop. 4,323) as a pilot project for larger snow structures that could be tourist attractions for the towns that average 250 inches of annual snowfall.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

Calvin McCarter, 10, of Jenison (pop. 17,211) became the youngest winner of the National Geographic Bee in May after correctly identifying China as the country which uses Lop Nur as a nuclear testing site.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

Paleontologist Daniel Fisher discovered the largest and most complete set of 10,000-year-old mastodon footprints in 1992 near Saline (pop. 8,034).

first appeared: 10/13/2002

Built to display flowers and farm produce in 1860, the octagonal Floral Hall at Marshall (pop. 7,459) is the state’s oldest fair building and the centerpiece of the Calhoun County Fair.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

In 1949, the Palmer Paint Co. in Detroit introduced paint-by-number kits with detailed outlines of paintings to be filled in by the artist.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

In July, firefighters in Mount Pleasant (pop. 25,946) traded their traditional firehouse pole for a spiral slide to save time and injuries gliding from their third-floor quarters.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

At the turn of the century, Mount Clemens (pop. 17,312) was known as “Bath City of America” and attracted 50,000 visitors annually to its sulfur-rich waters.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

Charles and Edward Leik restored the century-old wooden grain mill in Portland (pop. 3,789) last year as a gift to their hometown, which now uses The Red Mill for a farmers market and gathering spot.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

In 1872, George Carscallen applied for a post office and wanted to name the town Homer. The name was taken, so he dropped the “H” and the town became Omer (pop. 337).

first appeared: 9/1/2002

Founded in 1855, Michigan State University in East Lansing was the nation’s first land-grant university and served as the prototype for 69 other similar institutions.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

Established in 1850, Raymond Hardware in Port Sanilac (pop. 658) is the state’s oldest continuously operated hardware store.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

American chestnut trees thrive in Cadillac (pop. 10,000), which calls itself Chestnut Town USA. A blight that wiped out most of the nation’s chestnut trees in the early 1900s spared the species in western Michigan for unknown reasons.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

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