The Michigan History Museum is located inside the Michigan Library and Historical Center Building in downtown Lansing, just two blocks from the State Capitol Building. The museum is clean, easy to navigate, and child friendly at every turn.
As you travel through the exhibits, they’re laid out in chronological order, starting with the Anishinaabe — the state’s earliest people — and ending in the mid/late 20th century.
As you enter, it feels as though you’re heading into an actual copper mine shaft. The walls are covered in rocks, timber beam supports, mining carts, and tools scattered about with the sounds of miners working around you.
From the log pull to the saw blade in the mill, we gained much respect for these lumberjacks and their ability to cut massive trees — in the winter in the Upper Peninsula, which can average 200 inches of snow!
The third floor is all about the 20th century. It highlights the growth of the state through the automobile and manufacturing industries and the roles that those plants played in both world wars with the production of military vehicles for WWI and planes for WWII.