59 articles
Lima, Ohio
Lima, Ohio: Allen County seat founded by 1831 legislation, population 35,579 (2020). Site of the 1885 Trenton Limestone oil boom, once the world's most productive oilfield, and home to an Army Abrams tank plant.
London, Ohio
London, Ohio: county seat of Madison County, founded 1810 as a designated seat of justice. Population 10,279 (2020), estimated 10,813 in 2025; distinct from London, Kentucky and London, Ontario.
Lorain, Ohio
Lorain, Ohio: lakeside city at the mouth of the Black River, 25 miles west of Cleveland; about 65,000 residents; historic steel, shipbuilding, and lake port center with a large Hispanic community.
Mansfield, Ohio
Mansfield, Ohio, county seat of Richland County, founded 1808 and named for surveyor general Jared Mansfield. Former railroad manufacturing hub (Ohio Brass, Tappan, Westinghouse, GM); 2020 population 47,534; now focused on downtown redevelopment.
Marietta, Ohio
Marietta, Ohio: county seat of Washington County at the Ohio-Muskingum rivers confluence; founded April 7, 1788 by the Ohio Company as the first Northwest Territory settlement; distinct from Marietta, Georgia.
Marquette, Michigan
Marquette, Michigan: largest city in the Upper Peninsula, a Lake Superior port city of about 20,600 (2020 census), seat of Marquette County, known for iron ore shipping, Northern Michigan University, and the nickname Queen City of the North.
Middletown, Ohio
Middletown, Ohio, a city in Butler and Warren counties on the Great Miami River between Cincinnati and Dayton; settled 1791, steel city of Armco and Middletown Works, population about 52,000.
Midland, Michigan
Midland, Michigan: county-seat city of about 42,500 in central Michigan, home of Dow Chemical (founded 1897), over 400 Alden B. Dow mid-century modern buildings, and site of the 2020 Edenville and Sanford dam-failure flood.
Muskegon, Michigan
Muskegon, Michigan: Lake Michigan port city and Muskegon County seat, once the 'Lumber Queen of the World' (665 million board feet shipped in 1887); 38,318 residents in 2020, ferry to Milwaukee, and Muskegon Lake delisted as an EPA Area of Concern in 2025.
Pontiac, Michigan
Pontiac, Michigan: Oakland County seat founded 1818 by the Pontiac Company; major GM auto-making city, population 61,606 (2020), hit by plant closures by 2009 and now redeveloping downtown.
Royal Oak, Michigan
Royal Oak, Michigan: inner-ring Detroit suburb in Oakland County; named for an 1819 oak likened to Charles II's royal oak; city since 1921; about 57,600 residents, walkable downtown, Beaumont hospital, Detroit Zoo (1928).
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw, Michigan: county seat of Saginaw County in the Great Lakes Bay Region; council-manager city of about 44,000 (2020), former lumber and salt boomtown, now a health care and medical education center.
Sandusky, Ohio
Sandusky, Ohio: county seat of Erie County on Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie; founded 1818 on the Firelands with a Masonic street grid; home of Cedar Point; population 25,095 (2020).
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, "the Soo," is Michigan's oldest city, founded 1668 by Father Jacques Marquette on the St. Marys River. Home of the world's busiest Soo Locks, twin of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario; 2020 population 13,337.
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Shaker Heights, Ohio: a planned Cleveland suburb founded by the Van Sweringen brothers on former North Union Shaker land, incorporated 1912, known for voluntary school integration and persistent achievement-gap debates.
Southfield, Michigan
Southfield, Michigan is an inner-ring Detroit suburb in Oakland County, incorporated April 28, 1958, with about 76,000 residents, over 27 million square feet of office space, and 774 acres of park land.
Springfield, Ohio
Springfield, Ohio, county seat of Clark County between Dayton and Columbus, founded 1801, once the 'Champion City' of agricultural machinery, now a city of about 58,000 known for its Haitian community and the 2024-2026 TPS controversy.
Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights, Michigan: fourth-largest Michigan city (134,346 in 2020), in Macomb County near Detroit. Incorporated July 1, 1968 from Sterling Township; council-manager government; notable for Holcombe Beach Paleo-Indian site and 28% foreign-born residents.
Steubenville, Ohio
Steubenville, Ohio: Jefferson County seat on the Ohio River, founded 1797 and named for Fort Steuben; former steel town of 17,922 (2025 est.), home to Franciscan University.
Tecumseh, Michigan
Tecumseh, Michigan, a small city in Lenawee County founded in 1824 by Musgrove Evans and named for the Shawnee chief Tecumseh; 2020 population 8,680 on 5.65 square miles.
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio (the Glass City) is Ohio's fourth largest city, a Lake Erie port on the Maumee River with about 263,000 residents, a glass and automotive manufacturing history, and a 300,000-resident goal for 2045.
Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City, Michigan: city in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties on Grand Traverse Bay, population 15,678 (2020), hub of a 153,448-person micropolitan area, former lumber town turned cherry and tourism center.
Troy, Michigan
Troy, Michigan is an Oakland County city north of Detroit, settled in the 1820s and incorporated in 1955. Population 87,294 (2020); major business hub with 6,000+ businesses, high incomes, and the Troy Historic Village.
Warren, Michigan
Warren, Michigan: third-largest Michigan city in Macomb County, population 139,387 (2020), incorporated 1957, home of the 710-acre GM Global Technical Center and Army TACOM.
Westlake, Ohio
Westlake, Ohio, a Cuyahoga County suburb of Cleveland founded as Dover Township in 1811, renamed Westlake Village in 1940, a city since 1957; population 34,228 (2020), home to Crocker Park.
Xenia, Ohio
Xenia, Ohio is the county seat of Greene County in southwestern Ohio, founded 1803, population 25,441 (2020). Known for the deadly April 3, 1974 F5 tornado and as the Bicycle Capital of the Midwest, hub of five paved trails.
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio: Mahoning Valley city founded 1797 by John Young, incorporated 1802; a major steel center whose Youngstown Sheet and Tube closure on Black Monday 1977 began decline from a 1930 peak of 170,002 to about 59,000 today.
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Ypsilanti, Michigan: a Washtenaw County city on the Huron River, founded 1825 and named for Demetrius Ypsilanti; home of Eastern Michigan University, 20,648 residents in 2020.
Zanesville, Ohio
Zanesville, Ohio, county seat of Muskingum County at the Licking-Muskingum river confluence; founded 1804, Ohio capital 1810-1812, home of the Y-Bridge and a pottery heritage.