36 Best Sights in Michigan, USA

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History, the largest museum of its kind in the world, tells the story of the black experience in America through exhibits and audiovisual presentations; there's also a theater, research library, and store.

Midtown's top cultural attraction, with more than 100 galleries, is the Detroit Institute of Arts. The DIA displays 5,000 years of art treasures, including works by van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Renoir. Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry, four immense frescoes, is a must-see.

Among Belle Isle's other attractions is the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, with one of the largest orchid collections in the country.

Adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, the Automotive Hall of Fame has profiles of the individuals behind the machines, a mural of automotive history, and a full-size replica of the world's first gas-powered car.

Belle Isle, 3 mi southeast of the city center on a 1,000-acre island in the Detroit River, is reached by way of East Jefferson Avenue and East Grand Boulevard. Here you'll find woods, walking trails, sports facilities, a 9-hole golf course, and a ½-mi-long beach. Like many other urban parks, Belle Isle is best visited during the day.

At the far end of Belle Isle, the Belle Isle Nature Zoo offers family nature programs on weekends focused on Michigan flora and fauna.

The Cranbrook Art Museum has major exhibitions of contemporary art and a collection that includes works by Eliel and Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames.

Guided tours of this mine, 12 miles south of Copper Harbor along Highway 41, take visitors (wearing hard hats) 110 feet belowground for a 45-minute exploration (warm clothing is recommended). It's an authentic mine dating back to 1847 and veins of copper are still visible in what was once a highly active mining operation. Self-guided tours are also available. Aboveground, railroad enthusiasts will enjoy indoor and outdoor antique train displays, while animal lovers can visit a pen housing goats and deer.

Visual and performing-arts exhibits here range from historical art to contemporary works by artists of statewide, national, and international stature. The museum's Power Family Inuit Gallery, a permanent display of sculptures, prints (including stonecut and chine-collé), tapestries, and drawings by the Inuit artists of the Canadian Arctic, is among the largest and most historically complete collection anywhere. An outdoor sculpture garden features works by Michigan artists. Also at the museum are a hands-on children's gallery—the Thomas A. Rutkowski Discovery Gallery—a movie theater showing Thursday-night films, periodic performances in the Milliken Auditorium, and an impressive gift shop.

The Detroit Historical Museum hosts numerous exhibits exploring the region's history, its ties to the automobile, and the city's rich legacies in music and sports. Other worthwhile exhibits are Motor City and Streets of Old Detroit—a walk through the city's long history.

More than 2,800 animals from about 300 species live uncaged in natural habitats at the Detroit Zoo. Highlights include a large penguinarium, a walk-through aviary with tropical birds and plants, and a wildlife interpretive gallery with a butterfly house. Don't miss the Arctic Ring of Life exhibit, with polar bears and seals in a simulated habitat; an underwater tunnel gives you the chance to see the animals swim overhead.

Also on Belle Isle, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum includes a Gothic Room taken from a 1912 Great Lakes luxury liner, and the pilot house from the S.S. William Clay Ford, a Great Lakes freighter. You can also listen to ship-to-shore radio messages and view the river and city through a periscope.

Ford's son Edsel built the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, a 60-room Cotswold-style residence on 87 acres. Albert Kahn designed the 1929 home, which boasts a large collection of original antiques and art as well as extensive gardens.

Popular with bird-watchers, hikers, and anyone interested in flora and fauna, this 508-acre sanctuary is home to nearly 90 bird species, and 23 species of fern have been identified within its boundaries. But the biggest draw is the park's virgin white-pine forests, one of the last remaining stands in the Midwest, with 600-year-old trees up 150 feet high. In winter the three hiking-trail loops attract cross-country skiiers and showshoers.

Henry Ford's Fair Lane blends a Scottish Baronial style with a simple Arts and Crafts design. Here, you'll get a look at the bowling alley where Ford used to shoot pins with his friends Thomas Edison and naturalist John Burroughs.

Located 10 miles north of Sautatuck, the Felt Mansion is a peek into how the wealthy lived along the Midwest's Riviera in the 1920s and '30s. The 12,000-square-foot home was built between 1925 and 1928 on Shore Acres Farm as the Felt family's summer home. It remained in the family until 1949. After that, the home became a seminary for young men and was later used by the State of Michigan for office space. Massive restoration efforts have returned the Georgian mansion and elaborate gardens to their full glory, as they were during the late 1920s. In addition to self-guided tours, guided tours are available upon request.

Just outside of Saugatuck in Fennville, this is one of Michigan's best wineries. Tastings are free, as are the vineyard views. Educational wine-tasting tours last just under two hours. In winter and spring the tours include time in the wine cellar, while autumn means a trip to the vineyard. Check the winery's website when planning your visit—you may be able to take in one of the events hosted here. These range from a casual chili cook-off to winemaker's dinners, and cooking classes are also occasionally offered.

Built as an Army post to protect copper miners from Native Americans, this fort was abandoned in 1870 and now resides on the National Register of Historic Places. Costumed interpreters demonstrate what life would have been like in the fort during the mid-1800s, and you can tour refurbished officers' quarters. Hiking, cross-country skiing, fishing, and boating are among the other recreational activities available here, and there's a campground with showers and electricity hook-ups. The park is also home to one of the first lighthouses to be built along the shores of Lake Superior.

Founded in the early 1990s by the Meijer family, whose name graces a Midwestern grocery–department-store chain, this indoor–outdoor gallery, on 132 acres of landscaped grounds, has achieved international importance. A permanent collection of 200 works includes established artists and emerging talent, and outdoor exhibits are displayed in delightful natural settings, linked by walking trails with benches for quiet contemplation. Temporary exhibitions are also staged. Themed gardens include a children's garden, Japanese garden, and 1930s farm garden, and a five-story tropical conservatory houses exotic plants from around the world, including a 3,500-strong orchid collection. Hungry or not, visit the café to see the ceiling of glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly.

Focusing on the life and career of Grand Rapids native and the country's 38th president, Gerald R. Ford, along with First Lady Betty Ford, this museum's main attraction is to be able sit in a full-scale reproduction of the Oval Office, decorated as it was during Ford's presidency. The holographic tour of the White House is equally popular; other displays include gifts that President Ford received from world leaders. The museum also hosts naturalization ceremonies for new American citizens. Unlike other presidential museums, this one doesn't include the presidential library, which is in Ann Arbor.

The world's first LEED Gold–certified art museum opened in downtown Grand Rapids in 2007, specializing in paintings and drawings from 19th- and 20th-century American and European artists. Founded in 1910 as Grand Rapids Art Gallery, its previous home was a federal building. Among the most recognized artists in the 125,000-square-foot museum's 5,000-piece collection are Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Albrecht Dürer. Each fall the citywide ArtPrize competition brings thousands of people to the museum.

Visible from many points along the peninsula, the lighthouse in Leelanau State Park is a distinctive landmark, with its white exterior and red roof. It has been a welcome sight to sailors, and guided their ships, since it was built in 1858. Visitors can climb the spiral staircase to the tower of the lighthouse, and its location at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula practically guarantees gorgeous views of Lake Michigan's and Grand Traverse Bay's shoreline.

Dearborn's is America's largest indoor-outdoor museum. It charts the country's evolution from rural to industrial society through exhibits covering communication, transportation, domestic life, agriculture, and industry. Greenfield Village preserves 80 famous historic structures, including the bicycle shop where the Wright brothers built their first airplane; Thomas Edison's laboratory; an Illinois courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law; and the Dearborn farm where Ford himself was born. The Automobile in American Life, inside the museum, is a lavish collection of chrome and neon that traces the country's love affair with cars. W. Buckminster Fuller's futuristic Dymaxion House and the IMAX theater are also worth checking out.

Historic Cranbrook House and Gardens is an Arts and Crafts-style mansion designed by Albert Kahn for newspaper publisher George Booth and his wife, Ellen. Situated on a 319-acre National Historic Landmark campus, the house, the oldest surviving manor house in the Detroit area, has lead-glass windows, beautiful art objects, and formal gardens with fountains and sculpture.

One of Michigan's few remaining stands of virgin pine is protected in this 187-acre state park, adjacent to the esteemed Interlochen Center for the Arts, and 15 miles southwest of Traverse City. Snug between Green Lake and Duck Lake, it also has picnic areas, a campground, and activities such as swimming, boating, and fishing, while the mile-long Interlochen-Pines Nature Trail is suited for hiking and cross-country skiing. Established in 1917, the park was Michigan's first state park.

Several attractions share the same grounds here. The most prominent is the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, still operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. Occupying the Coast Guard's former garage building, the Keweenaw History Museum documents the region's evolution from a lumber town to a major leader in the mining industry, and exhibits include a mix of photographs and artifacts. Two other museums are on-site and also maintained by the Keweenaw County Historical Society: the Maritime Museum and the Commercial Fishing Museum.

The opulent Meadow Brook Hall was built in the late 1920s for Matilda Dodge, widow of auto pioneer John Dodge. The 110-room, 88,000-square-foot, Tudor-revival style mansion includes a two-story ballroom, original art and furnishings, and formal gardens.

One of Frank Lloyd Wright's enduring architectural masterpieces, this house is among the best preserved of his works. With original furnishings, carpets, light fixtures, linens, and color schemes, it remains largely as Wright and his studio crafted it in 1909. The Prairie-style house was built for a prominent local clothier and is part of the city's Heritage Hills Historic District. Steelcase, a manufacturer of office furniture based in Grand Rapids, embarked on a two-year restoration after acquiring the house in 1985. Trained docents lead the tours.

Self-guided historical tours here include a peek at what operations in the once-functional lighthouse were like during the 1870s. Perched on a small hill, the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1933. Surrounding it are the 5 acres of wooded land and hundreds of acres of parkland of the Old Mission State Park, with trails for hiking, running, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing; there are also picnic spots and bird-watching opportunities. It's not uncommon to spot an "Indian tree" while on the trails; these were purposely bent by Native American as trail markers. Visitors can also check out the historic Hessler Log Cabin and walk along the park's beachfront on Old Mission Peninsula.

On Saugatuck's most scenic beach, the park, which has 100 acres of protected sand dunes, attracts close to 200,000 visitors each year for its walking trails and the mile-long shoreline. Comfortable shoes are a must as the dunes can be challenging to climb. Barbecue grills and picnic-table sets are available and there is a seasonal concession stand. Viewing nightly sunsets over the beach is a favorite activity for locals.