Michigan History Questions
Part 1-
1. What were the reasons behind the growth of the lumber industry in Michigan?
2. What towns were associated with the lumber industry?
3. What groups of laborers were primarily associated with the lumber industry?
4. What factors determined whether a town or region became a central site for the lumber industry?
5. What was needed before the UP could become a major producer of lumber?
6. What were the environmental consequences of lumbering?
7. Individuals:
a. Henry Crapo
b. Charles Hackley
c. David Whitney
Part 2-
1. Why does Michigan have such extensive mineral deposits?
2. What are the leading non-metallic minerals mined in Michigan?
3. What building stones are quarried in Michigan?
4. Does Michigan have large deposits of coal, oil, and gas?
5. What were the leading copper mines, and what was the most productive copper mine?
6. What factors led to the decline of the copper industry in Michigan?
7. What was the Italian Hall tragedy (1913)?
8. What inventions improved the efficiency of mining?
9. Why didn't all mines include smelters or blast furnaces?
10. Where was iron ore mined in the UP?
Part 3-
1. How did the state fund railroad construction?
2. What fueled Michigan's "railway frenzy"?
3. What constraints did the Constitution of 1850 present to railway construction?
4. What issue was decided in The People v. Salem in 1870?
5. What prompted railroad tourism?
6. What towns became important in the new tourist industry?
7. What happened to the cutover land owned by railroad companies after the lumber industry waned?
8. What options did ore companies have in transporting their product to market? What was most economical means?
9. How did railroads change people's lives?
Part 4-
1. What issues did the Radical Republicans champion?
2. After Reconstruction, what became the main policy focus of the Republican Party?
3. After the Civil War, Michigan experienced a change from a ____ to a ___ economy.
4. Why did many farmers not like the railroads?
5. After the Civil War, what were the leading economic drivers in Michigan?
6. What were the leading manufacturing industries in the state?
7. What were reasons the public rejected the Constitution of 1867?
8. What was the impact of the Panic of 1873 on Michigan?
9. Why did the country's money supply become a major political issue in the 1870s?
10. Individuals:
a. Zachariah Chandler
b. Henry Crapo
c. Hazen Pingree
Part 5- Growth of Manufacturing, 1850-1900
1. What were the leading agricultural industries in Michigan after 1865?
2. What were the leading manufacturing companies and their products?
3. Match the following cities with the products they were known for:
4. Grand Rapids, Flint, Detroit, Kalamazoo, Midland, Wyandotte
5. Why did Michigan became a major center for chemical industries?
6. What were the leading pharmaceutical companies in Michigan?
7. What products did the state manufacture from the iron ore deposits in the UP?
8. Individuals:
a. D. M. Ferry
b. John Harvey and Will Keith Kellogg
c. Herbert H. Dow
d. Capt. John B. Ford
e. Col. Frank Hecker
Part 6-
1. What factors led to Detroit becoming the center of the automobile industry?
2. Why was the Chicago's World Fair of 1893 important for automobile development?
3. Why did the gasoline engine win out over steam or electric engines?
4. What was the first commercially viable automobile company in Michigan?
5. How did racing figure in the early automobile companies?
6. Why was the Selden engine patent dispute settlement important?
7. What factors made the Model T such a commercial success?
8. What is meant by "mass production," the "assembly line," and the "moving assembly line"?
9. What kind of company was General Motors?
10. What was the significance for Michigan's economy of the rise of the automobile industry?
11. Be able to identify the following individuals:
a. Charles B. King
b. Henry Ford
c. Ransom Olds
d. William ("Billy") Durant