Michigan Trivia & Tidbits - Page 8

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

Robert Hupp, born in 1887 in Grand Rapids, founded the Hupp Motor Car Co. in Detroit and introduced the 1909 Hupmobile, priced at $750. The company manufactured 500,000 cars before closing in 1940.

first appeared: 6/27/2004

Spencer Gill, a seventh grader in New Boston, knew the meaning of “gloaming” and then victory after winning the 2004 Reader’s Digest National Word Challenge and a $25,000 scholarship. (Answer: twilight)

first appeared: 6/20/2004

Allan Williams, an Ionia County engineer, built the first picnic table on a highway right-of-way along U.S. 16 in 1929. Other states soon copied his refreshing idea.

first appeared: 6/13/2004

Marquette (pop. 19,661) is the start and finish for U.P. 200, a 240-mile dog sled race and qualifier for the Alaskan Iditarod.

first appeared: 6/6/2004

Since 1933, Kalkaska (pop. 4,830) and its 275 miles of local trout streams have lured fishermen to the National Trout Festival each spring.

first appeared: 5/30/2004

Calumet Theatre, one of the nation’s first municipal theaters, opened in 1900 in Calumet (pop. 6,997), where its lavish decor included an electrified copper chandelier.

first appeared: 5/23/2004

When Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn (pop. 1,176) was completed in 1968, more than 2.5 million yards of dirt were moved to form the D-shaped oval racetrack.

first appeared: 5/23/2004

Opened in 1891, the St. Clair River Tunnel at Port Huron (pop. 32,338) is the nation’s first underwater railroad tunnel.

first appeared: 5/16/2004

The “heroes of horsepower” on land, sea and in the air are memorialized at the Motorsports Hall of Fame and Museum in Novi (pop. 47,386).

first appeared: 5/9/2004

Kids for Kirt at Grand Blanc City School in Lansing are lobbying to change the state bird from the robin to Kirtland’s warbler, which nests only in Michigan.

first appeared: 5/2/2004

Michigan Sugar Co. built the state’s first successful sugar beet factory in 1898 in Essexville (pop. 3,766).

first appeared: 4/25/2004

Students at Paddock Elementary School in Milan (pop. 4,775) set a world record for the biggest hug in June 2001, when 1,478 student and adult huggers stood hand-to-shoulder for 10 seconds.

first appeared: 4/18/2004

In 1829, William Austin Burt of Detroit received the first American patent for a typewriter, which he called a typographer.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

Paw Paw (pop. 7,091) was so named because of its abundance of native pawpaw trees. The fruit is a cross between a banana and a papaya.

first appeared: 4/4/2004

Ransom E. Olds of Lansing, for whom the Oldsmobile was named, was a machinist who built his first vehicle—a three-wheeled, steam-powered carriage—in 1886 at age 22.

first appeared: 3/28/2004

In 1927, Dorothy Gerber of Fremont (pop. 4,224) told her husband that, instead of hand-straining baby food for their daughter, his canning company could easily do the work. He agreed, and Gerber baby foods was born.

first appeared: 3/21/2004

The 1849 Michigan State Fair was the first state fair held in the United States. It once was held at various sites, but has been in Detroit since 1905.

first appeared: 3/14/2004

In 1879, Detroit telephone customers were first in the nation to be assigned phone numbers to facilitate handling calls. Until then, operators used names.

first appeared: 3/7/2004

The first state police radio system in the world was established in 1929 by the Michigan State Police.

first appeared: 2/29/2004

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, on 35 miles of Lake Michigan’s eastern coast, was established for its forests, beaches, dune formations, and ancient glacial phenomena. The lakeshore also contains an 1871 lighthouse.

first appeared: 2/22/2004

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