Promote Michigan

Sometimes a destination is so special, you’re compelled to uproot your life and relocate there.

Smaller communities around Michigan face unique challenges when it comes to developing ways to draw residents, businesses and travelers to town. While larger urban centers may have deeper pockets, enhanced resources and the support of multiple governmental agencies, small towns often rely more on creative grassroots initiatives and idea sharing with other like-sized municipalities.

It’s a cooperative attitude along with a charming and vibrant historic downtown that make Alma the ideal backdrop for Michigan State University Extension’s Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities (CEC) conference, September 14-15.

Visitors have been traveling the Lake Michigan shoreline for generations, drawn to the cooler climate, sugar sand beaches and quaint coastal towns. This region – known as Michigan’s “fruit belt” – is also deeply rooted to the agricultural industry with vineyards, orchard and farms dotting the landscape.

Josh Stoltz was fortunate to have spent his youth exploring the rural countryside of Benzie Country, where agriculture has been rooted for generations.

Early mining prospectors established operations in the western Upper Peninsula, along the Montreal River which formed the border with Wisconsin, in the early 1870s. Within a decade, Ironwood – in what would become Gogebic County – was incorporated, welcoming residents from throughout the United States as well as European countries like England, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden. It was this growing global community which created the colorful culture that is still celebrated and evolving today.

The narrow waterways weaving through Les Cheneaux Islands in northern Lake Huron have welcomed an array of boats over the past 350-plus years – from the early Native Americans and French voyageurs in birch bark canoes to generations of tourists arriving by steamer and later residents cruising along in their wooden runabouts.

The characters from the beloved story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” have jumped out of the book’s pages to proudly take up residence next to a “Yellow Brick Road” outside the Herrick District Library in downtown Holland.

A Child of the Sea was a more than just the title of Elizabeth Whitney Williams’ 1905 autobiography – it was an accurate moniker for the Michigan-born woman who became one of the longest-serving lighthouse keepers in the entire Great Lakes region. One of her earliest recollections was wandering down to the coastline to gaze upon the vastness of the freshwaters before her. It entranced her then just as it did for the ninety-plus years of her life living in Michigan.

With more miles of Great Lakes shoreline than any other state – not to mention 11,000-plus inland lakes and 36,000 miles of rivers and streams – finding meeting spaces with magnificent coastal views may be easier than you think. From board meetings, conferences and awards banquets to retreats, team building and cocktail receptions, Michigan delivers a variety of venues from coat to coast (to coast) for unparalleled events.