Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States.
Its name derives from a gallicized variant of the original Ojibwe word , meaning
'large water' or 'large lake'.
Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower
Peninsula is shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula (often called
"the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of
Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km) channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan.
