Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Polka dancing at a Friday-night fish fry in
Milwaukee
(
Click here
).
Paddling the
Boundary Waters
(
Click here
) and sleeping under a blanket of
stars.
Cycling along the river against the urban backdrop of
Detroit
(
Click here
)
.
Taking the slowpoke, pie-filled route through Illinois on
Route 66
(
Click here
)
.
History
The region's first residents included the Hopewell (around 200 BC) and Mississippi
River mound builders (around AD 700). Both left behind mysterious piles of earth that
were tombs for their leaders and possibly tributes to their deities. You can see remnants
at Cahokia in southern Illinois, and Mound City in southeastern Ohio.
French voyageurs (fur traders) arrived in the early 17th century and established mis-
sions and forts. The British turned up soon after that, with the rivalry spilling over into
the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War, 1754-61), after which Britain took control
of all of the land east of the Mississippi. Following the Revolutionary War, the Great
Lakes area became the new USA's Northwest Territory, which was soon divided into
states and locked to the region after it developed its impressive canal and railroad net-
work. But conflicts erupted between the newcomers and the Native Americans, including
the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana; the bloody 1832 Black Hawk War in Wiscon-
sin, Illinois and around, which forced indigenous people to move west of the Mississippi;
and the 1862 Sioux uprising in Minnesota.
Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, industries sprang up and grew
quickly, fueled by resources of coal and iron, and cheap transport on the lakes. The work
available brought huge influxes of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia and
southern and eastern Europe. For decades after the Civil War a great number of African
Americans also migrated to the region's urban centers from the South.
The area prospered during WWII and throughout the 1950s, but this was followed by
20 years of social turmoil and economic stagnation. Manufacturing industries declined,
which walloped Rust Belt cities such as Detroit and Cleveland with high unemployment
and 'white flight' (ie white middle-class families who fled to the suburbs).
The 1980s and '90s brought urban revitalization. The region's population increased,
notably with newcomers from Asia and Mexico. Growth in the service and high-tech sec-
tors resulted in economic balance, although manufacturing industries such as car making
and steel still played a big role, meaning that when the economic crisis hit in 2008, Great
Lakes towns felt the pinch first and foremost.
