Before they even opened the doors to Long Road Distillers in Grand Rapids in 2015, owners Jon O’Connor and Kyle VanStrien knew they wanted to create a unique gin that would be a purely Michigan product.

Michigan is home to nearly 20 historic forts, some dating back to the early 1700s—decades before the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Detroit was founded in 1701, its first fort being built that year by the French and destroyed a century later by the 1805 fire which ravished the city. The British-built Fort Lernoult (renamed Fort Detroit and later Fort Shelby) was constructed in 1778 and demolished in 1827.

Long before the Food Network, HGTV and The History Channel (and even before the widespread availability of cable television) Marshall was establishing itself as one of the Midwest’s top historic and foodie destinations.

Established in 1830, seven years before Michigan’s statehood, Marshall was the front runner for the state capitol. Town leaders were so confident of their lead, that a Governor’s Mansion was built. Yet, the city lost by just one vote to Lansing, due north.

The year was 1899. The intersection of Bay and Lewis streets in downtown Petoskey was taking shape with the completion of The Perry Hotel—the only one of this city’s grand turn-of-the-century resort hotels still in existence and the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad Station—which was part of the 500-plus-mile passenger and freight system that traveled between Cincinnati, Ohio and the Straits of Mackinac from 1854 until 1918.