This Has Been Crowned Michigan’s Most Popular Attraction… And it’s Not a Lake

When I think about what draws people to Michigan, it's all about water! We are the Great Lakes State after all. Well, according to a travel publication, this is Michigan's most popular attraction... and it's got nothing to do with water.

LoveExploring.com sought to find the top attraction in each state, from theme parks, to cultural institutions, to iconic monuments, and national parks. To determine the ranking, experts from Airport Parking Reservations analyzed data from Google searches and TripAdvisor reviews.

Their pick for the most popular site in Michigan? The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

READ MORE: This is the Toughest School in Michigan to Get Into

Which, another notch in Ann Arbor's belt - it was recently named the most educated city in the entire country!

So what makes U-M so special, aside from that it's a hugely popular college and fans of the Michigan Wolverines are spread far and wide?

LoveExploring says the school's stone courtyards, gatehouses, halls, and colonnaded walkways and picturesque grounds "evoke a sense of Hogwarts-like charm and grandeur". Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state.

Did you know the university actually began in Detroit? Before Michigan was even officially a state, on Aug. 26, 1817, in Detroit, the governor of the Michigan Territory, Lewis Cass, and several judges enacted a bill to establish a University of Michigania, also called a Catholepistemiad.

If you'd never heard that before, I hadn't either! According U-M, "Catholepistemiad" was a word one of the judges Augustus Woodward made up, saying it meant a “system of universal science.” But nobody really used it. Instead, the new school was referred to as the College of Detroit. In 1837, after Michigan got its statehood, it was decided the college would be relocated to Ann Arbor.