Michigan, USA

Current time now in Time Zone: America New York (USA Eastern Time)

Michigan is an upper Midwestern US state. The name is derived from Lake Michigan, which in turn is believed to come from the Chippewa Indian word meicigama , meaning "great water."

Bounded by four of the Great Lakes, Michigan has the longest freshwater shoreline in the continental United States.

Michigan Time Zone

Most of Michigan is in the Eastern Time Zone. Eastern Standard Time (EST) is 5 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-5).

Four Michigan counties (Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson and Menominee) in the western Upper Peninsula that share their southern border with the state of Wisconsin are in the US Central Time Zone.

Michigan consists of two peninsulas thrusting into the Great Lakes and has borders with Ohio, Indiana (S), Wisconsin (W) and the Canadian province of Ontario (N, E).

The Lower Peninsula, shaped like a mitten, is separated from Ontario, Canada, on the east by Lake Erie, Lake Huron and by the Detroit River and the St. Clair River, which together link these two Great Lakes. It is bordered by Lake Michigan on the west, across which lies Wisconsin. The Upper Peninsula lies northeast of Wisconsin between Lake Michigan and Lake Superior and is separated from Ontario by the narrow St. Mary's River.

The Upper Peninsula. known as the U.P., is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac; a bridge connecting the two peninsulas was opened in 1957 and has spurred the development of the Upper Peninsula.

The U.S. postal abbreviation for Michigan is MI .