TRAVELTRIVIA
QUESTION OF THE MONTH
(© 2009 Randy Karr)

Bill Pevsner, Deborah Black, Elly Willis and Fred Black correctly answered Tri-Centennial State Park as being Michigan’s first urban state park. Now, let’s see how you do with this Michigan Travel Trivia question of the month. Answer is due December 15.

By the age of 36, Michigan’s first state geologist had acquired an impressive résumé-medical doctor, University of Michigan professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology, President of Detroit’s first Board of Education, and Mayor of Detroit. While working on a survey of Michigan’s natural resources, his report that the Keweenaw Peninsula’s copper deposits could be profitably mined triggered the first great mining boom in the history of United States. Thereafter, he became known as the "father of copper mining in the United States." In 1846, he perished when a fierce Lake Superior gale capsized his boat near Eagle River, Michigan. The following spring his remains washed ashore and were buried in Detroit’s Elmwood Cemetery. Memorializing him is plaque at the University of Michigan’s Department of Geological Sciences. A monument near the University of Michigan’s Graduate Library, which features a broken pillar symbolizing lives cut short, also memorializes him, as well as three other University of Michigan professors. Name this remarkable man who has a city, a county and two lakes named in his honor.

Email Answers & Facts to:
randy@lakeshoreguardian.com

Mail Answers & Facts to:

Know an interesting or unique fact about Michigan that you think would make a good Travel Trivia question? Then, please e-mail your suggestion to randy@lakeshoreguardian.com.