Michigan is a pair of peninsulas. It's one of the first things Michiganders of elementary school age learn.

But what they don't teach you in school, and what many adults don't realize is that Michigan's Lower Peninsula is actually the tip of a great island on the North American continent.

👇BELOW: This is the Opposite End of Every National Highway That Begins in Michigan👇

Here's how it works:

The Great North American Island Theory Explained

  • Start at the tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula at the Straits of Mackinac and follow Lake Michigan to Chicago
  • Take the Chicago River downtown and flow inland via the Sanitary and Ship Canal to the Des Plains River
  • The Des Plains flows to the Illinois which flows into the Missississppi
  • Follow the Mississippi to its outflow to the southern Gulf
  • Round the Gulf to Southern Florida and flow into the Okeechobee Waterway at Fort Myers. This canal crosses the entire state and cuts Florida in two
  • Enter the Atlantic Ocean from the Okeechobee Waterway at Stewart, Florida
  • Follow the coast north to New York City and the Hudson River
  • Take the Hudson north to Albany where it meets the Mohawk River/Erie Canal
  • Cross New York State via the Erie Canal to Buffalo and enter Lake Erie
  • Take Lake Erie to the Detroit River - Lake St Clair and St Clair River to Lake Huron
  • Follow Lake Huron north to the Straits of Mackinac

READ MORE: How Michigan Sits on the Cusp of the Continental Divide

You have completed a full navigation of the Eastern American Island.

technically, this is an island
byu/embolalia inmapporncirclejerk

READ MORE: A Trip to Point MOO - the Michigan, Ohio, Ontario Tripoint

There's a larger potential island that includes all of New York State, New England and much of eastern Canada following Lake Erie to the Niagara River to Lake Ontario and to the Atlantic via the St Lawrence.

Crazy theory: Technically the Eastern United States and Southeastern Canada could be considered an island? (Read my first comment)
by inMaps

Either way you map it, Michigan is the tip of a great continental island.

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This is the Opposite End of Every Federal Highway That Begins in Michigan

There are 16 different federal highways (US and Interstate routes) that begin in Michigan but end elsewhere, some just a few miles across the state line some thousands of miles away. Here is the opposite end of every highway that begins in Michigan.

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