Western Michigan University, at Kalamazoo, Mich.; coeducational; founded in 1903 as Western State Normal School, became accredited in 1927 as a college, gained university status in 1957. The u...

Albion, industrial city (1990 pop. 10,066), Calhoun co., S Mich., at the forks of the Kalamazoo River; inc. 1855. In an agricultural area, it produces corn, wheat, soybeans, onions, apples, ho...

Battle Creek, city (1990 pop. 53,540), Calhoun co., S Mich., at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers; settled 1831, inc. as a city 1859. It is an agricultural trade center k...

Ferber, Edna, 1887–1968, American author, b. Kalamazoo, Mich. Her novels portray the lives of a wide variety of Americans in a vigorous, colorful, and panoramic fashion. Among her best-known n...

Portage. 1 Town (1990 pop. 29,060), Porter co., NW Ind., a suburb of Gary, on Lake Michigan; inc. 1959. The town, which was once surrounded by great industries, manufactures steel and a number...

Gruen, Victor, 1903–80, American architect, often called the inventor of the modern shopping mall, b. Vienna as Viktor David Grünbaum. In Vienna, he studied at the Technological Institute and ...

Michigan, Lake, 22,178 sq mi (57,441 sq km), 307 mi (494 km) long and 30 to 120 mi (48–193 km) wide, bordered by Mich., Ind., Ill., and Wis.; third largest of the Great Lakes and the only one ...

Michigan, upper midwestern state of the United States. It consists of two peninsulas thrusting into the Great Lakes and has borders with Ohio and Indiana (S), Wisconsin (W), and the Canadian p...