You guys are smart. That's all I need
to say.
Tuesday I posed a thought experiment—what would Michigan have become had Calumet been named
the state capital instead of Lansing? I had a few thoughts on the
matter, and I asked if you had ideas. Well, a few of you did, and
one of them, in fact, blew my mind. Probably because it would've
happened.
First of all, a lot of you kind of
stayed along the lines of what I had put forth. Several people who
wrote wondered, as I did, if the U.P. would've become industrial part
of the state, instead of Detroit. Several of you also thought that
wouldn't have happened, due mostly to weather and/or isolation
issues. And a couple of you expressed gladness that it didn't
happen, fearing that the influx of population and/or industry
would've ruined the area.
There wouldn't have been as many trees
around. That's for sure.
Daily blog reader Julie of Marquette
had a thought that blew my mind. Julie wondered if Calumet had become the state capital and all the money and power had flowed up here, if
the people downstate, much like we are now, would have felt neglected
and without influence. Julie then wondered if those people, much
like we do now, would have made a move for statehood separate from
“Michigan”. So you would've had the U.P., with Calumet has its
capital, as “Michigan”, and what we call downstate as it's own
state. Let's call it “Huron” for the lack of anything else.
Julie, that's a great thought. And I'm
gonna take it one step further, if you don't mind. The reason
Calumet was considered as state capital was because of the power and
wealth of the copper industry. So if what we now know as Michigan
had, following Julie's theory, split into two states, “Michigan”
and “Huron”, what would've happened to “Michigan” when the
copper ran out? Would “Michigan” find itself economically dried
up? Would that industrial base we talked about Tuesday in Marquette
and along the Lake Michigan shore have allowed “Michigan” to
thrive, or would it have led to “Michigan” becoming the first
(and perhaps biggest) victim of the post-industrial revolution?
Is it too much to suppose that, had
Calumet become the capital of Michigan, we'd be a downtrodden
post-industrial wasteland by now? Once again, I'm not saying that's
what would've happened, but it's one possible outcome for our little
mental exercise. Maybe “Michigan” and “Huron” would've come
back together to form Michigan, maybe Wisconsin would've taken us in,
or maybe we'd just be a peninsula onto ourselves, with a bunch of
old, polluted industrial sites dotting the landscape.
No matter what you think of how we're
treated by Lansing these days, you have to admit that it's probably
better that that scenario.
Not that it's important. This was just
a little mental exercise, after all, and I'd like to thank everyone
who send in their thoughts or notes. As always, I appreciate them
all. Speculation can be a blast, can't it? On that note, have
yourself a great weekend. Enjoy the mild weather before whatever
we're supposed to get Monday shows up!
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