Fields of bituminous coal extend over an area of over I 0,000 sq.m. in the south-east portion of the State, but its quality is inferior. The mining of coal began in Jackson county in 1836, but for many years the production increased slowly. The period of greatest average production was the five years, 1916-2o when 1,301,000 short tons were mined annually. The product in 1934 was 621,741 tons. The chief producing counties in 1934 were Saginaw, Bay, Shiawassee, Eaton, Midland, Jackson, and Ingham. Salt wells are numerous in the middle and north-eastern sections of the lower peninsula; the first successful one was drilled in Saginaw county in 1859 and 186o. For some years prior to 1893 Michigan led the States in this field ; then New York took first place for a time. Since 1915, however, Michigan has held the lead, with a production in 1935 of 2,110,000 tons. Gypsum is obtained from deposits along the banks of the Grand river in Kent county and in the vicinity of Alabaster along the shore of Lake Huron in Iosco county. In 1934, 281,033 tons valued at $2,469,022 were mined. Marl is found in many parts of the State ; limestone most largely in the northern part of the lower peninsula, and in the eastern part of the upper peninsula. The presence of these products has given rise to Michigan's large Portland cement in dustry; in 1935 the State's output was 4,578,966 barrels. Coke is produced in quantity but mainly from coal brought into the State. In 1935 the value of this product was $14,125,590.
The manufactures of the State in 1935 were valued at $4,020,909,490 as compared with $1,086,162,000 in
This advance was mainly due to the extraordinary growth of the automobile industry concentrated in the region. General depres sion drove the total down to $2,104,105,000 in 1933, but by 1936 a strong revival had begun, which promised soon to bring the level of production above that of 1929. The value of automobiles manufactured increased from $7,996,534 in 1904 to $1,820,296,128 in 1929. In
Production was $1,244,481,744 and motor vehicle bodies and parts manufactured had a value of $1,018,596,515. This represented over half the total output of the nation in both categories. The number of wage-earners engaged in this industry in 1914 was 67,538 or 24.9% of the total number of industrial wage-earners in the State. In 1935 the corresponding number was 228,845 or 42.7%. Foundry, machine shops, and rolling-mill products stood next in the order of importance with 54,570 workers and products valued at $226,261,170. Other major in dustries included paper and paper goods ($85,405,405) ; chemicals and druggists' preparations ($84,588,767) ; printing and publishing ($61,532,386) ; bread and bakery goods ($52,919,747) ; paints
; machine tools
; refrigerators and ice making apparatus ($51,020,410) ; butter and condensed and evap orated milk
; hardware
; furniture (36,178,358); meat-packing ($44,762,597). Michigan ranked third among the States in the production of chemicals and drug gists' preparations. She also stood third in furniture manufactures and first in refrigerators and ice-making apparatus. Her foundry and machine shop production was surpassed only by Ohio and Pennsylvania. About half the manufactures of the State are in Detroit and neighbouring cities, Highland Park and Hamtramck.
In this district are the motor vehicle, foundry and machine shop, meat-packing, and brass and bronze industries. The city of Flint is another important locus of motor vehicle manufacturing.
The building of railways in Michigan began in 1830, but little progress had been made in 1837 when the State began the construction of three railways and two canals across the southern half of the lower peninsula. Some progress was made, but by 1846 the State proved itself incompetent to carry on the work and sold its interest to private companies. The railway mileage continued to grow until 1910 when it was 9,021 ; since that date there has been a gradual decrease, the mileage in 1935 being 7,498. The principal lines are the Michigan Central, the Pere Marquette, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Grand Trunk and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul. The mileage of electric railways was 879 in 1932.
Besides railway communication, Michigan has a coastline of about 1,600m. and several good harbours. The water communi cations were extended and improved by several canals, among which are the Sault Ste. Marie, which passes the rapids of the
St. Mary's river; the St. Clair Flats, at the north end of Lake St.
Clair, by which a deeper channel is made through shallow water; and the Portage lake, in the copper district, which connects that lake with Lake Superior. The traffic through the Sault Ste. Marie canal in 1935, according to the tabulations published in the Statistical Abstract, was 48,293,000 short tons with a value of $688,o0o,000. During 1934 Michigan harbours made shipments of over 13,267,00o tons with receipts over 13,546,000 tons.
An excellent system of State trunk roads is maintained by the State highway department. This department, at the close of
controlled 8,982m. of roads, of which 7,823m. were surfaced. The total expenditure for highways by the State highway department in 1934 was $28,428,000. The total motor vehicle registration for the year 1935 was 1,239,431.
From 1613 until 1760 the territory now within the borders of Michigan formed a part of New France, and the first Europeans to found missions and settlements within those bor ders were Frenchmen. Two Jesuits, Raymbault and Jogues, visited the site of Sault Ste. Marie as early as 1641 for the conversion of the Chippewas; in 1668 Marquette founded there the first per manent settlement within the State; three years later he had founded a mission among the Hurons at Michilimackinac ; La Salle built a fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph in 1679; and in 1701 Cadillac founded Detroit as an important point for the French control of the fur trade. The bitter strife between the missionaries and Cadillac, and the French system of absolutism in government and monopoly in trade were further obstacles to progress. Even Detroit was so expensive to the Government of the mother country that there was occasional talk of abandoning it ; and so during the last 59 years that Michigan was a part of New France there were no new settlements, and little if any growth in those already established. During the last war between the English and the French in America, the Michigan settlements passed into the possession of the English, Detroit in 1760 and the others in 1761. The white inhabitants, mostly French, were subjected to an English rule that until the Quebec Act of 1774 was chiefly military, and as a consequence many of the more thrifty sought homes elsewhere, and the Indians, most of whom had been allies of the French, were so ill-treated, both by the officers and traders, that under Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, a simultaneous attack on the English ports was planned. Detroit was besieged for five months and both Michilimackinac and St. Joseph were taken. Moreover, the English policy, which first of all was con cerned with the profits of trade and manufacture, gave little more encouragement to the settlement of this section of the country than did the French. By the Treaty of Paris, in 1783, which con cluded the American Revolution, the title to what is now Michigan passed to the United States, and in 1787 this region became a part of the North-west Territory; but it was not until 1796 that De troit and Mackinac (Michilimackinac), in accordance with Jay's treaty of 1794, were surrendered by Great Britain. In 180o, on the division of the North-west Territory, the west portion of Michi gan became a part of the newly established Indiana Territory, into which the entire area of the present State was embodied in 1802, when Ohio was admitted to the Union ; and finally, in 18o5, Michigan Territory was organized, its south boundary being then described as a line drawn east from the south extremity of Lake Michigan until it intersected Lake Erie, and its west boundary a line drawn from the same starting point through the middle of Lake Michigan to its north extremity and then due north to the north boundary of the United States. During the War of 1812, General William Hull, the first governor of the Territory, although not greatly outnumbered, surrendered Detroit to the British without a struggle ; in the same year also Mackinac was taken and Michigan again passed under British rule. This rule was of short duration, however, for soon after Commodore Oliver H. Perry's victory on Lake Erie, in September of the next year, Detroit and the rest of Michigan except Mackinac, which was not recaptured until July 1815, were again taken into the possession of the United States.