Mention MICHIGAN and most people think of cars, heavy industry and inner-city Detroit. Midwesterners prefer to focus on its magnificent scenery. The beaches, dunes and cliffs along the 3200-mile shoreline of its two vividly contrasting peninsulas - bordering four of the five Great Lakes - rival many an oceanfront state.

The mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula is dominated from its southeastern corner by the industrial giant of Detroit , surrounded by satellite cities heavily devoted to the automotive industry. In the west, the scenic 350-mile Lake Michigan shore drive passes through likeable little ports before reaching the stunning Sleeping Bear Dunes and resort towns such as Traverse City in the peninsula's balmy northwest corner. The desolate, dramatic and thinly populated Upper Peninsula , reaching out from Wisconsin like a claw to separate lakes Superior and Michigan, is a far cry indeed from the cosmopolitan south.

In the mid-seventeenth century, French explorers forged a successful trading relationship with the Chippewa, Ontario and other tribes. The British , who acquired control after 1763, were far more brutal. Governor Henry Hamilton, the "Hair Buyer of Detroit," advocated taking scalps rather than prisoners. Ever since, Michigan's economy has developed in waves, the eighteenth-century fur, timber and copper booms culminating in the state establishing itself at the forefront of the nation's manufacturing capacity, thanks to its abundant raw materials, good transportation links, and the genius of innovators such as Henry Ford . Despite the slumps of the Seventies and Eighties, car production remains the major source of Michigan income - and tourism is now a four-season money-spinner.  TOP

North of Ann Arbor
Between Ann Arbor and the Lake Michigan coast there's not a whole lot worth stopping for, though Kellogg's new Cereal City USA , 171 W Michigan Ave (tel 616/962-6230), in Battle Creek is a fun diversion that traces the history of cereal - and of course, magnate Kellogg's impact on it (summer Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm, Sat 9.30am-6pm, Sun 11am-5pm; call for winter hours; $7.95). Further west, St Joseph is just the first of many small ports on the 350-mile trip north along Lake Michigan's eastern shore, the northwest reaches of the peninsula attracting sportspeople and tourists from all over the Midwest. Within striking distance of Traverse City are the beautiful Sleeping Bear Dunes and the charming towns of Charlevoix and Petoskey . At the northern tip, a revitalized Mackinaw City is the departure point for the state's major tour-bus attraction, old-world Mackinac Island.

Upper Peninsula
From a map, it would seem logical for Michigan's Upper Peninsula , separated from the rest of the state by the Mackinac Straits , to be part of Wisconsin. However, when Michigan entered the Union in 1837 (eleven years before Wisconsin), its legislators, keen to tap the peninsula's huge mineral wealth, incorporated it into their new state.

Before then the UP, as it's commonly known, figured prominently in French plans to create an empire in North America. Father Jacques Marquette and other missionaries made peace with the native people and established settlements, including the port of Sault Ste Marie in 1688. The French hoped to press further south, but before they could get much past Detroit, the British inflicted a severe military defeat in 1763.

Vast, lonesome and wild, the Upper Peninsula is full of stunning landmarks, exemplified by the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore . Most of the eastern section is marked by low-lying, sometimes swampy land in between softly undulating limestone hills. The northwest corner is the most desolate, especially the rough and broken Keewanaw Peninsula , and Isle Royale National Park fifty miles offshore. The UP's only real city is Marquette , a college town with a quiet buzz - a good base from which to explore the UP's rugged terrain. Until 1957 you could get to the UP from lower Michigan only by ferry. Today, the five-mile Mackinac Bridge ($1.50 toll), lit up beautifully at night, stretches elegantly across the bottleneck Straits of Mackinac.  TOP