THOUSANDS ASSEMBLE IN ANN ARBOR'S STADIUM TO SEE MICHIGAN'S GRIDMEN DEFEND THEIR TITLE Approximately 86,000 people fill every available foot of space whenever the Wolverine State's university team goes into action against a major rival. MUCH OF THE WORLD'S PEPPERMINT COMES FROM MICHIGAN Its chief uses are for flavoring dental preparations, confections, and chewing gum. This peppermint farm covers 2,200 acres. serted village. And the hardware fraternity received back many a keg of nails which had done duty as a specie reserve. Pontiac, a town founded in the early boom period, leaped into the general expansion frenzy by taking out the State's first railroad charter in 1830. Six years later work was begun on the Detroit & Pontiac Railroad. Presently many a pioneer, upon hearing the first locomotive's distant shriek, was seizing his gun to "git the b'ar" with the strident voice. The original track of wooden, ironsheathed rails was soon discharging rippedoff fragments of sheathing through the car bottoms. These "snake-heads," as the flying fragments were called, caused many a casualty among the passengers until the D. & P. came handsomely to the rescue with "a new and elegant car" whose metaled flooring smothered the snake-head offensive. Michigan's through-rail connection with the East was established by the completion of the Great Western Railroad in 1854. TO-DAY IS MICHIGAN'S MANUFACTURING ERA Nowadays the State's transportation is served by steam lines operating 8,700 miles, motor coaches 7,000 miles, and electric lines 1,090 miles. When the State's second capital, named THE FARMING REGION ABOUT KALAMAZOO AND MANTON IS NOTED FOR CELERY The soil is a deep black muck and the plants grow in long, boarded-in rows. Tourists in the vicinity of Kalamazoo are familiar with the sight of great cartloads of celery being sold on the street corners (see, also, text, page 300). IN THE STORAGE BINS OF ONE OF THE SAGINAW SUGAR FACTORIES The beets are loaded into the bins from motor trucks and freight cars, and are conveyed to the slicers and cookers within the plant by water flowing swiftly through sluiceways. RAW MATERIAL FOR THE SATISFACTION OF AMERICA'S BIG SWEET TOOTH Michigan stands with Colorado in the front rank of States producing sugar beets. Her crop approximates a million tons annually, but this figure shrinks to little more than an eighth of its weight by the time the beets are reduced to refined sugar. |