Michigan
Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The state's name, originates from the Ojibwe word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". With a population of about 10 million, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area, is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River, its capital is Lansing, its largest city is Detroit. Metro Detroit is among the nation's largest metropolitan economies. Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas; the Lower Peninsula is noted as shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan; the Mackinac Bridge connects the peninsulas. The state has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair; as a result, it is one of the leading U.
S. states for recreational boating. Michigan has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. A person in the state is never more than six miles from a natural water source or more than 85 miles from a Great Lakes shoreline; the area was first occupied by a succession of Native American tribes over thousands of years. Inhabited by Natives, Métis, French explorers in the 17th century, it was claimed as part of New France colony. After France's defeat in the French and Indian War in 1762, the region came under British rule. Britain ceded this territory to the newly independent United States after Britain's defeat in the American Revolutionary War; the area was part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Michigan Territory was formed in 1805, but some of the northern border with Canada was not agreed upon until after the War of 1812. Michigan was admitted into the Union in 1837 as a free one, it soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region and a popular immigrant destination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Although Michigan developed a diverse economy, it is known as the center of the U. S. automotive industry, which developed as a major economic force in the early 20th century. It is home to the country's three major automobile companies. While sparsely populated, the Upper Peninsula is important for tourism thanks to its abundance of natural resources, while the Lower Peninsula is a center of manufacturing, agriculture and high-tech industry; when the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa, the Boodewaadamii/Bodéwadmi. The three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires; the Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest. The Ojibwe were established in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern and central Michigan, inhabited Ontario and southern Manitoba, Canada; the Ottawa lived south of the Straits of Mackinac in northern and southern Michigan, but in southern Ontario, northern Ohio and eastern Wisconsin.
The Potawatomi were in southern and western Michigan, in addition to northern and central Indiana, northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, southern Ontario. Other Algonquian tribes in Michigan, in the south and east, were the Mascouten, the Menominee, the Miami, the Sac, the Fox; the Wyandot were an Iroquoian-speaking people in this area. French voyageurs and coureurs des bois settled in Michigan in the 17th century; the first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlé's expedition in 1622. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions. Missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were well received by the area's Indian populations, with few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph. In 1691, the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present-day city of Niles.
In 1701, French explorer and army officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or "Fort Pontchartrain on-the-Strait" on the strait, known as the Detroit River, between lakes Saint Clair and Erie. Cadillac had convinced King Louis XIV's chief minister, Louis Phélypeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain, that a permanent community there would strengthen French control over the upper Great Lakes and discourage British aspirations; the hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent and named it Fort Pontchartrain. Cadillac's wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in what was considered the wilderness of Michigan; the town became a major fur-trading and shipping post. The Église de Saint-Anne was founded the same year. While the original building does not survive, the congregation remains active. Cadillac departed to serve as the French governor of Louisiana from 1710 to 1716.
French attempts to consol
Downtown
Downtown is a term used in North America by English-speakers to refer to a city's commercial and the historical and geographic heart, is synonymous with its central business district. In British English, the term "city centre" is most used instead; the two terms are used interchangeably in Canada. The Oxford English Dictionary's first citation for "down town" or "downtown" dates to 1770, in reference to the center of Boston; some have posited that the term "downtown" was coined in New York City, where it was in use by the 1830s to refer to the original town at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan. As the town of New York grew into a city, the only direction it could grow on the island was toward the north, proceeding upriver from the original settlement, the "up" and "down" terminology coming from the customary map design in which up was north and down was south. Thus, anything north of the original town became known as "uptown", was a residential area, while the original town –, New York's only major center of business at the time – became known as "downtown".
During the late 19th century, the term was adopted by cities across the United States and Canada to refer to the historical core of the city, most the same as the commercial heart of the city. "Uptown" spread, but to a much lesser extent. In both cases, the directionality of both words was lost, so that a Bostonian might refer to going "downtown" though it was north of where they were. Downtown lay to the south in Detroit, but to the north in Cleveland, to the east in St. Louis, to the west in Pittsburgh. In Boston, a resident pointed out in 1880, downtown was in the center of the city. Uptown was south of downtown in New Orleans and San Francisco. Notably, "downtown" was not included in dictionaries as late as the 1880s, but by the early 1900s, "downtown" was established as the proper term in American English for a city's central business district, although the word was unknown in Britain and Western Europe, where expressions such as "city centre", "le centre-ville", "el centro", "o centro" and "das Zentrum" are used.
As late as early part of the 20th century, English travel writers felt it necessary to explain to their readers what "downtown" meant. Although American downtowns lacked legally-defined boundaries, were parts of several of the wards that most cities used as their basic functional district, locating the downtown was not difficult, as it was the place where all the street railways and elevated railways converged, – at least in most places – where the railroad terminals were, it was the location of the great department stores and hotels, as well as the theatres, clubs and dance halls, where skyscrapers were built once that technology was perfected. It was frequently, at first, the only part of a city, electrified, it was the place where street congestion was the worst, a problem for which a solution was never found. But most of all, downtown was the place. Inside its small precincts, sometimes as small as several hundred acres, the majority of the trading and purchasing – retail and wholesale – in the entire area would take place.
There were hubs of business in other places around the city and its environs, but the downtown area was the chief one the central business district. And as more and more business was done downtown, those who had their homes there were pushed out, selling their property and moving to quieter residential areas uptown; the skyscraper would become the hallmark of the downtown area. Prior to the invention of the elevator – and the high-speed elevator – buildings were limited in height to about six stories, a de facto limit set by the amount of stairs it was assumed that people would climb, but with the elevator, that limit was shattered, buildings began to be constructed up to about sixteen stories. What limited them was the thickness of the masonry needed at the base to hold the weight of the building above it; as the buildings got taller, the thickness of the masonry and the space needed for elevators did not allow for sufficient rentable space to make the building profitable. What shattered that restriction was the invention of first the iron- and the steel frame building, in which the building's load was carried by an internal metal frame skeleton, which the masonry – and glass – hung off of without carrying any weight.
Although first used in Chicago, the steel-framed skyscraper caught on most in New York City in the 1880s, from there spread to most other American cities in the 1890s and 1900s. The apparent lack of a height limitation of this type of building set off a fervent debate over whether their height should be restricted by law, with proponents and opponents of height limits bringing out numerous arguments in favor of their position; the question of height limits had a profound implication for the nature of downtown itself: would it continue to be a concentrated core, or as it grew, would height limits force it to spread out into a larger area. In the short run, the proponents of height limits were successful in their efforts. By the 1910s, most of the largest and medium-sized cities had height limits in effect, with New York – despite several concerted efforts to enact them, Detroit and Minneapolis being notable holdouts. Though, it would not be height limits per se that restricted skyscrapers, but comprehensive zoning laws which would set up separate requirements for different parts of a c
Interstate 40
Interstate 40 is a major east-west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States north of I-10, I-20 and I-30 but south of I-70. The western end is at I-15 in California. S. Route 117 and North Carolina Highway 132 in Wilmington, North Carolina, it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, behind I-80 and I-90. Much of the western part of I-40, from Oklahoma City to Barstow parallels or overlays the historic US 66, east of Oklahoma City the route parallels US 64 and US 70. I-40 runs through many major cities including New Mexico. Though I-40 is a cross-country east-west interstate, it does not nearly touch both oceans or coasts like I-10, I-80 and I-90 does; the eastern terminus touches near the Atlantic Ocean, but the western terminus doesn't touch the Pacific Ocean. Interstate 40 is a major east–west route of the Interstate Highway System, its western end is in California. Known as the Needles Freeway, it heads east from Barstow across the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County to Needles, before it crosses into Arizona southwest of Kingman.
I-40 covers 155 miles in California. A sign in California showing the distance to Wilmington, North Carolina has been stolen several times. Interstate 40 is a main route to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, with the exits leading into Grand Canyon National Park in Williams and Flagstaff. I-40 covers 359 mi in Arizona. Just west of exit 190, west of Flagstaff, is its highest elevation along I-40 in the U. S. as the road crosses just over 7,320 ft. I-40 passes through the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the U. S. I-40 covers 374 miles in New Mexico. Notable cities along I-40 include Gallup, Albuquerque, Santa Rosa, Tucumcari. I-40 travels through several different Indian reservations in the western half of the state, it reaches its highest point of 7,275 feet at the Continental Divide in western New Mexico between Gallup and Grants. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas are the only three states where I-40 has a speed limit of 75 mph instead of 70 mph which happens in California, Arkansas and North Carolina.
In the west Texas panhandle area, there are several ranch roads connected directly to the interstate. One of the marked at-grade crossings is shown to the right; the only major city in Texas, directly served by I-40 is Amarillo, which connects with Interstate 27 that runs south toward Lubbock. I-40 has only one welcome center in the state, located in Amarillo at the exit for Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, serving both sides of the interstate. Interstate 40 goes through the heart of the state, passing through many Oklahoma cities and towns, including Erick, Elk City, Weatherford, El Reno, Oklahoma City, Del City, Midwest City, Okemah, Checotah and Roland. I-40 covers 331 miles in Oklahoma. In Downtown Oklahoma City, Interstate 40 was rerouted a mile south of its former alignment and a 10–lane facility replaced the former I-40 Crosstown Bridge. Interstate 40 runs for 284 miles in Arkansas; the route passes through Van Buren, where it intersects the southbound Interstate 540/US 71 to Fort Smith.
The route continues east to Alma to intersect Interstate 49 north to Arkansas. Running through the Ozark Mountains, I-40 serves Ozark, Russellville and Conway; the route turns south after Conway and enters North Little Rock, which brings high volume interchanges with Interstate 430, I-30/US 65/US 67/US 167, I-440/AR 440. The interstate continues east through Lonoke and West Memphis on the eastern side. Interstate 40 overlaps Interstate 55 in West Memphis before it crosses the Mississippi River on the Hernando de Soto Bridge and enters Memphis, Tennessee. More of Interstate 40 passes through 455 miles, than any other state; the interstate goes through all of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee and its three largest cities, Memphis and Knoxville. Jackson, Cookeville and Newport are other notable cities and/or towns through which I-40 passes. Before leaving the state, I-40 enters the Great Smoky Mountains towards North Carolina; the section of Interstate 40 which runs between Memphis and Nashville is referred to as the Music Highway.
During reconstruction, a long section of I-40 through downtown Knoxville near the central Malfunction Junction was closed to traffic from May 1, 2008 and not reopened until June 12, 2009 with all traffic redirected via Interstate 640, the northern bypass route. The redesigned section now has additional lanes in each direction, is less congested, has fewer accidents. In North Carolina, I-40 travels 421 miles, it enters the state as a winding mountain freeway through the Great Smoky Mountains which closes due to landslides and weather conditions. It enters the state on a north-south alignment, turning to a more east-west alignment upon merging with U. S. Route 74 at the eastern terminus of the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway. From there the highway passes through Asheville and Statesville before reaching the Piedmont Triad. Just east of the Triad city of Greensboro, North Carolina it merges with I-85 and the two roads split again
Elevated highway
An elevated highway is a controlled-access highway, raised above grade for its entire length. Elevation is constructed as viaducts a long pier bridge. Technically, the entire highway is a single bridge. Elevated highways are more expensive to build than at-grade highways, are only used where there is some combination of the following on the desired route: difficulty controlling access at grade, for example where it would be disruptive or expensive to eliminate existing crossings at grade at grade construction would not allow for optimal traffic flow, for example due to hilly terrain or existing crossings budget or time to eliminate impeding structures is high, due to acquisition costs, demolition costs, or environmental factors. Other advantages to tunnels are that they do not occupy as much valuable real estate, cause less noise pollution, may cause less long-term environmental damage, protect travellers from surface weather. Below-grade open cuts, which are less costly to maintain, but more expensive to build Early engineering for elevated highways owes much to early elevated railway design, which preceded them.
Elevated highways were first used to: create free traffic flow prevent accidents in busy cities provide some of the first regional connections between nearby cities, in early arterial traffic plansIn the late 19th century and early 20th century and streetcars had frequent accidents where they traversed through population centers. These lead to the first "death avenues", such as 11th Avenue in New York City. Aside from safety and pedestrians crossing trains' paths slowed service. In addition, it became difficult to lay down rail lines, as the construction process was disruptive to normal traffic flow; the existing street grid made it difficult to lay some railroad lines, as the trains required a wide turn radius. This led to the first elevated railways in the late 19th century; the elevated rails, being grade-separated, prevented all pedestrian/vehicle accidents, could allow track bends above existing structures. Their construction could still be disruptive, but was less so, as pier construction to support their elevated structures did not close an entire roadway or long stretches of roadway for an extended period.
However, conversion from at grade railways to elevated did not always take place, many lines continued to be at grade in urban areas well into the 20th century. Concurrently, the increase of automobile and truck traffic early in the 20th century exacerbated many of the safety and free flow issues the railways presented - and in fact, created additional hazards with railways; the increase in traffic meant that for the first time, there was a need to develop new and improved roads between cities. By the 1920s, truck traffic in warehouse and dock areas was high enough that there was frequent congestion and frequent accidents. In 1924, New York City began looking for ways to relieve the problems of the combination of trucks, cars and pedestrians on 11th Avenue, known as Death Avenue before the advent of the car and truck; the mayor, the Manhattan borough president, the police commissioner, the Port Authority, the New York Central Railroad, others worked on various plans to take the railroad and passenger cars off the street, eliminating the major conflicts that led to injury, property damage, traffic jams, delays in service.
The Miller Highway, named after its chief proponent, Borough President Julius Miller, was constructed in sections from 1929 through 1937, became the world's first elevated, controlled access highway. After an interruption for World War II, several extensions were built from 1947 to 1951, under the leadership of urban planner Robert Moses connecting it to his other projects, such as the Henry Hudson Parkway and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel; the Miller Highway influenced many other subsequent projects, such as Boston's Central Artery and the Pulaski Skyway, Moses' own Gowanus Parkway. At the start the 20th century, New York and New Jersey state officials realized that car traffic on ferries was increasing beyond the ability of the then-current ferry system. Planning for the Holland Tunnel started in 1919, it was constructed from 1922 to 1927; as construction started, New Jersey began planning traffic flows between the tunnel and nearby cities. The legislature passed a bill to extend existing highway Route 1 east through Newark and Jersey City.
Due to local opposition to having new highways disrupt local traffic patterns, the engineers elected to use a viaduct, which became the Pulaski Skyway for the eastern portions of the new route. It opened in 1933
Michigan Department of Transportation
The Michigan Department of Transportation is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate, US and state highways in Michigan with the exception of the Mackinac Bridge. Other responsibilities that fall under MDOT's mandate include airports and rail in Michigan; the predecessor to today's MDOT was the Michigan State Highway Department, formed on July 1, 1905 after a constitutional amendment was approved that year. The first activities of the department were to distribute rewards payments to local units of government for road construction and maintenance. In 1913, the state legislature authorized the creation of the state trunkline highway system, the MSHD paid double rewards for those roads; these trunklines were signed in 1919, making Michigan the second state to post numbers on its highways. The department continued to improve roadways under its control through the Great Depression and into World War II.
During the war, the state built its first freeways. These freeways became the start of Michigan's section of the Interstate Highway System. Since the mid-1960s, the department was reorganized, it was renamed the Michigan Department of State Highways for a time. Further changes culminated in adding all modes of transportation to the department's portfolio. In August 1973, the department was once again renamed to the Michigan Department of State Highways and Transportation by executive order; the name was simplified and shortened to that of today. The first State Highway Department was created on July 1, 1905; the department was born out of the Good Roads Movement at the turn of the century. Bicycle enthusiasts as a part of the League of American Wheelmen pushed for better roads and streets, they wanted to ensure that bicyclists could use these streets and roads free from interference from horsedrawn vehicles. This movement persuaded the Michigan State Legislature to form a State Highway Commission in 1892.
Another law in 1893 allowed voters in each county to establish county road commissions. The attention of Michigan residents was turned to the good-roads movement by Horatio S. Earle, the first state highway commission. In 1900 he organized the first International Road Congress in Port Huron and put together a tour of a 1-mile macadam road, he ran for the state senate in 1900 at the urging of the Detroit Wheelmen bicycle club. The legislature set up a state reward system for highways and created the State Highway Department with an office of Highway Commissioner. Earle was appointed by Governor Aaron Bliss; this appointment and department were voided when the attorney general ruled the law unconstitutional. A constitutional amendment was passed in 1905 to reverse this decision; the department was formed, Earle was appointed commissioner by Governor Fred M. Warner on July 1, 1905. At first the department administered rewards to the counties and townships for building roads to state minimum specifications.
In 1905 there were 68,000 miles of roads in Michigan. Of these roads, only 7,700 miles were improved with gravel and 245 miles were macadam; the state's "statute labor system" was abolished in 1907. Under that system, a farmer and a team of horses could work on road improvements in place of paying road taxes. Instead a property tax system was instituted with the funding only for permanent improvements, not maintenance; the nation's first mile of concrete roadway was laid along Woodward Avenue between Six Mile and Seven Mile roads in Detroit. This section of street was 17 feet 8 inches wide. Work began by the Wayne County Road Commission on April 2, 1909 and finished on July 4, 1909, at a cost of $13,354. In 1913 voters elected Frank Rogers to the post of highway commissioner; this election was the first. Automobile registrations surged to 20 times the level at the department's formation, to 60,438, there were 1,754 miles of roads built under the rewards system. Passage of the "State Trunkline Act" provided for 3,000 miles of roadways with double rewards payments.
Further legislation during the Rogers administration allowed for special assessment taxing districts for road improvements, taxation of automobiles based on weight and horsepower and tree-planting along highway roadsides. Another law allowed the commissioner to name all unnamed state roads, it allowed for the posting of signage with the names and distances to towns. The first centerline was painted on a state highway in 1917 along the Marquette-Negaunee Road, designated Trunkline 15, now Marquette County Road 492 That same year the first stop sign was put in place and the country's first "crow's nest" traffic signal tower was installed in Detroit; this traffic light using red-yellow-green was developed by a Detroit police officer. Michigan is home to the first snowplow; this winter maintenance started during World War. In 1919 Michigan first signed the second state after Wisconsin to do so; the first ferry service was started on July 1923, linking Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas. The first gasoline tax was enacted in 1923 at the rate of $0.02/gal, but vetoed by Governor Alex Groesbeck.
It was enacted effective in 1926. The highway commissioner was given complete control over the planning and maintenance of the state trunklines. Construction switched to concrete or asphalt only instead of gravel and macadam with an increase in the
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U. S. state located in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 20th most populous; the state capital is Madison, its largest city is Milwaukee, located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The state is divided into 72 counties. Wisconsin's geography is diverse, having been impacted by glaciers during the Ice Age with the exception of the Driftless Area; the Northern Highland and Western Upland along with a part of the Central Plain occupies the western part of the state, with lowlands stretching to the shore of Lake Michigan. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a large number of European settlers entered the state, many of whom emigrated from Germany and Scandinavia. Like neighboring Minnesota, the state remains a center of German American and Scandinavian American culture.
Wisconsin is known as "America's Dairyland" because it is one of the nation's leading dairy producers famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, information technology, cranberries and tourism are major contributors to the state's economy; the word Wisconsin originates from the name given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian-speaking Native American groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673 and calling the river Meskousing in his journal. Subsequent French writers changed the spelling from Meskousing to Ouisconsin, over time this became the name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling from Ouisconsin to Wisconsin when they began to arrive in large numbers during the early 19th century; the legislature of Wisconsin Territory made the current spelling official in 1845. The Algonquin word for Wisconsin and its original meaning have both grown obscure.
Interpretations vary. One leading theory holds that the name originated from the Miami word Meskonsing, meaning "it lies red", a reference to the setting of the Wisconsin River as it flows through the reddish sandstone of the Wisconsin Dells. Other theories include claims that the name originated from one of a variety of Ojibwa words meaning "red stone place", "where the waters gather", or "great rock". Wisconsin has been home to a wide variety of cultures over the past 14,000 years; the first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation. These early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting and gathering food from wild plants. Agricultural societies emerged over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of this period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the "Effigy Mound culture", which built thousands of animal-shaped mounds across the landscape.
Between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Mississippian and Oneota cultures built substantial settlements including the fortified village at Aztalan in southeast Wisconsin. The Oneota may be the ancestors of the modern Ioway and Ho-Chunk tribes who shared the Wisconsin region with the Menominee at the time of European contact. Other Native American groups living in Wisconsin when Europeans first settled included the Ojibwa, Fox and Pottawatomie, who migrated to Wisconsin from the east between 1500 and 1700; the first European to visit what became Wisconsin was the French explorer Jean Nicolet. He canoed west from Georgian Bay through the Great Lakes in 1634, it is traditionally assumed that he came ashore near Green Bay at Red Banks. Pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers visited Green Bay again in 1654–1666 and Chequamegon Bay in 1659–1660, where they traded for fur with local Native Americans. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first to record a journey on the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway all the way to the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien.
Frenchmen like Nicholas Perrot continued to ply the fur trade across Wisconsin through the 17th and 18th centuries, but the French made no permanent settlements in Wisconsin before Great Britain won control of the region following the French and Indian War in 1763. So, French traders continued to work in the region after the war, some, beginning with Charles de Langlade in 1764, settled in Wisconsin permanently, rather than returning to British-controlled Canada; the British took over Wisconsin during the French and Indian War, taking control of Green Bay in 1761 and gaining control of all of Wisconsin in 1763. Like the French, the British were interested in little but the fur trade. One notable event in the fur trading industry in Wisconsin occurred in 1791, when two free African Americans set up a fur trading post among the Menominee at present day Marinette; the first permanent settlers French Canadians, some Anglo-New Englanders and a few African American freedmen, arrived in Wisconsin while it was under British control.
Charles Michel de Langlade is recognized as the first settler, establishing a trading post at Green Bay in 1745, moving there permanently in 1764. Settlement began at Prairie du Chien around 1781; the French residents at the trading post in what is now Green Bay, referred to the t
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 71,148 at the 2010 census, it is the fourth largest city in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence, Central Falls, North Providence and East Providence in Rhode Island and Seekonk and Attleboro in the state of Massachusetts; the name "Pawtucket" comes from the Algonquian word for "river fall." The Pawtucket region was said to have been one of the most populous places in New England prior to the arrival of European settlers. Native Americans would gather here to take advantage of the salmon and smaller fish which gathered at the falls; the first European settler here was Joseph Jenks, who came to the region from Massachusetts. He purchased about 60 acres near Pawtucket Falls in 1671, he forge. These, along with the entire town, were destroyed during King Philip's War. Other settlers followed Jenks, by 1775 the area was home to manufacturers of muskets, linseed oil and ship building. Around this time Oziel Wilkinson and his family set up an iron forge making anchors, screws, farm implements, cannons.
Pawtucket was an early and important center of cotton textiles during the American Industrial Revolution. Slater Mill, built in 1793 by Samuel Slater on the Blackstone River falls in downtown Pawtucket, was the first mechanized cotton-spinning mill in America. Slater Mill is known for developing a commercially successful production process not reliant on earlier horse-drawn processes developed in America. Slater operated machines for producing yarn. Other manufacturers continued, transforming Pawtucket into a center for textiles, iron working, other products. By the 1920s, Pawtucket was a prosperous mill town; the city had over a half-dozen movie theaters, two dozen hotels, an impressive collection of fine commercial and residential architecture. The most impressive public building in Pawtucket was the Leroy Theatre, an ornate movie palace, called "Pawtucket's Million Dollar Theater". Many wealthy mill owners such as Darius Goff built their mansions in the area; the textile business in New England declined during the Great Depression with many manufacturers closing or moving their facilities South where operations and labor were cheaper.
In the 20th Century, Pawtucket began to lose some of its architectural heritage to the wrecking ball, including the Leroy Theatre. But unlike numerous older mill towns in the region, Pawtucket retained much of its industrial base. Today, goods produced in the city include lace, non-woven and elastic woven materials, silverware and textiles. Hasbro, one of the world's largest manufacturers of toys and games, is headquartered in Pawtucket; the land west of the Blackstone River was part of nearby North Providence. East of the Blackstone River was settled as part of the Massachusetts town of Rehoboth; the first Pawtucket to be incorporated was in 1828 when Rehoboth gave up their land and Pawtucket became a new town in Massachusetts. In 1862 the eastern portion was absorbed into Rhode Island. On March 1, 1862 after a nearly 225 year border dispute between Rhode Island and Plymouth/Massachusetts, the areas of Pawtucket and East Providence was shifted into Rhode Island; the border hasn't been moved in over 150 years.
In 1874, the land west of the river was taken from North Providence and added to the town of Pawtucket, but acted as two different towns. In 1886, West and East Pawtucket were merged and the city was incorporated. Pawtucket is located at 41°52′32″N 71°22′34″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.0 square miles, of which, 8.7 square miles of it is land and 0.3 square miles of it is water. Pawtucket lies within three drainage basins; these include the Moshassuck River and the Ten Mile River. As of the census of 2010, there were 71,141 people, 32,055 households, 18,508 families residing in the city. Pawtucket was the fourth most populous of towns; the population density was 8,351.2 people per square mile. There were 32,055 housing units at an average density of 3,642.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 50.4% Non-Hispanic white, 18.9% Non-Hispanic African American, 0.60% Native American, 1.6% Non-Hispanic Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, mixed race 3.9%, 4.7% other.
There were 32,055 households out of which 30.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 16.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 38.4% were non-families. 32.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 3.07. In the city, the population was spread out with 24.9% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 31.3% from 25 to 44, 19.9% from 45 to 64, 14.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.9 males. The median income for a household in the city was $28,124, the median income for a family was $40,578. Males had a median income of $31,129 versus $23,391 for females; the per capita income for the city was $17,008. About 14.9% of families and 16.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.5% of those under age 18 and 15.2% of those age 65 or over.
According to the 2000 census, 20.6 % of Pawtucket residents are French-Canadian. Like nearby cities Providence, R. I. Fall River, Mass. and New Bedford, Mass. Pawtucket hosts a significant pop
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