USA > Michigan

Central Region

The Central region is characterized by college towns with performing arts centers, sporting events, dining and recreational diversity, gardens and miles of biking and hiking trails. Midland is home to the Chippewa Nature Center, encompassing 1,000 acres of woods, fields, ponds, rivers and wetlands as well as hiking and cross-country skiing trails. A museum boasts hands-on exhibits, a library, a restored 1870s farm, an 1880s log school house, a sugar house and an arboretum of Michigan trees and shrubs.

In Bay City, the Historical Museum of Bay County traces the development of the county with displays of period rooms and exhibits pertaining to agriculture, Native American culture, the fur trade and the lumber, shipbuilding and shipping industries. Tall ships include Bay City on their itinerary of lakeport visits as a part of Tall Ships Challenge; tours aboard are available.

The Michigan Space and Science Center in Jackson features a moon rock and the Apollo 9 capsule. A nearby unique point of interest is the Cascades, 16 man-made waterfalls whose summit offers a

panorama of Cascades at Sparks County Park. North of Flint is Crossroad Village & Huckleberry Railroad, a simulated yesteryear hamlet that suspends Christmas in amber. The Carl G. Fenner Nature Center in Lansing features four miles of nature trails, an herb garden and a visitor center with reptiles, amphibians, native birds and environmental displays.