131 articles
Detroit
Detroit, the largest city in Michigan, was founded by the French in 1701 and grew into the heart of the American automotive industry as the Motor City.
Dublin, Ohio
Dublin, Ohio is a Columbus-area city founded in 1810 by John Sells and named by surveyor John Shields after Dublin, Ireland. Population 49,328 (2020); home to Cardinal Health, Muirfield Village, and the Dublin Irish Festival.
East Lansing, Michigan
East Lansing, Michigan: Ingham/Clinton county city incorporated 1907, named by the state Senate over local favorite College Park; home of Michigan State University (founded 1855), population 47,741 in 2020, council-manager government.
East Palestine, Ohio
East Palestine is a village in Columbiana County, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania line, with a 2020 population of 4,761, known nationally for the February 2023 Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that released hazardous chemicals.
East St. Louis, Illinois
East St. Louis, Illinois: a St. Clair County city across the Mississippi from St. Louis, population 18,469 (2020), 93.7% Black, site of the deadly July 2, 1917 race massacre and long industrial decline.
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is a city at the confluence of the Eau Claire and Chippewa Rivers; incorporated in 1872, it is the seventh-largest city in Wisconsin.
Elgin, Illinois
Elgin, Illinois: Fox River city about 38 miles northwest of Chicago, founded 1835, incorporated 1854; 2020 population 114,797, sixth largest in Illinois; historic dairy and Elgin National Watch Company center.
Elkhart, Indiana
Elkhart, Indiana: city of about 54,000 at the confluence of the St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers, a railroad hub since 1851 and center of the U.S. RV manufacturing industry.
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois: home rule city in Cook County on Lake Michigan north of Chicago, home of Northwestern University; about 78,000 residents, first U.S. municipal reparations program, Envision Evanston 2045 plan.
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville, Indiana: third-largest Indiana city, county seat of Vanderburgh County on the Ohio River. Founded 1812 as McGary's Landing, named for Robert Morgan Evans; 2020 population 117,298; manufacturing-anchored economy.
Fairmount, Indiana
Fairmount, Indiana: small Grant County town (population about 2,670), settled 1830, once called Pucker; hometown and burial place of James Dean and home of Garfield creator Jim Davis, with an annual September James Dean festival.
Findlay, Ohio
Findlay, Ohio: county seat of Hancock County in northwestern Ohio on I-75, population 40,313 (2020). Founded from Fort Findlay (1812), boomed on 1880s gas, and hosts Marathon Petroleum headquarters.
Flint, Michigan
Flint, Michigan: a city and Genesee County seat, original home of General Motors, site of the 1936-37 UAW sit-down strike and the 2014-15 lead water crisis; 2020 population 81,252.
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin: county-seat city of about 44,700 at the foot of Lake Winnebago; French-named "far end of the lake," nearly Wisconsin's capital in 1836, council-manager government, Mercury Marine employer.
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne, Indiana: second-largest Indiana city at the confluence of the St. Marys, St. Joseph, and Maumee rivers; founded 1794, population about 273,000, manufacturing- and healthcare-driven economy with below-average living costs.
Frankenmuth, Michigan
Frankenmuth, Michigan, or Michigan's Little Bavaria, is a Saginaw County city founded in 1845 as a Franconian Lutheran mission colony by August Craemer under Wilhelm Loehe; about 5,000 residents, 3 million annual visitors, Bavarian-themed tourism.
French Lick, Indiana
French Lick, Indiana: small Orange County town famed for its sulfur springs, French Lick Springs Hotel, Pluto Water, the 1931 FDR Governors' Conference, 1924 PGA, Larry Bird, and the Cook-restored resort and casino.
Galena, Illinois
Galena, Illinois: a Jo Daviess County city in the Driftless Area, founded on lead mining in 1826, once the busiest Mississippi River port between St. Paul and St. Louis, home of Ulysses S. Grant, now a preserved historic tourist town.
Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana: city founded 1906 by U.S. Steel as a company town for the Gary Works mill, named for Elbert H. Gary; peaked near 178,000 in 1960, now about 67,000, a Rust Belt steel city undergoing demolition and redevelopment.
Goshen, Indiana
Goshen, Indiana, the Maple City, is the county seat of Elkhart County, platted in 1831, population about 34,500, with a large Hispanic/Latino community and an RV-manufacturing-centered economy.
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan: second-largest Michigan city and Kent County seat on the Grand River, known as Furniture City; about 201,000 residents in 2025, commission-manager government since 1916.
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wisconsin: city at the mouth of the Fox River in Brown County; 2020 population 107,395. Fur-trade and lumber port, home of the Green Bay Packers and Lambeau Field, economic hub of northeastern Wisconsin.
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Grosse Pointe, Michigan: a 1.06-square-mile Lake St. Clair city in Wayne County, one of five Pointes bordering Detroit; 5,678 residents (2020), median household income $158,853, incorporated as a village in 1879.
Hammond, Indiana
Hammond, Indiana: Lake County city 20 miles south of Chicago, founded 1869 around the George H. Hammond slaughterhouse, incorporated 1883; population 77,879 (2020), retail downtown, Wolf Lake parks, and a 2026 Chicago Bears stadium proposal.
Hamtramck, Michigan
Hamtramck, Michigan: a 2-square-mile Detroit enclave in Wayne County; 27,261 residents (2025 est.), 46.7% foreign-born, first all-Muslim US city council (2021), Polish industrial history, and recent election-fraud investigations.
Highland Park, Illinois
Highland Park, Illinois: Lake County city on Lake Michigan about 25 miles north of Chicago, population about 30,000; home of the Ravinia Festival and site of the July 4, 2022 parade shooting.
History of Detroit
History of Detroit: founded July 24, 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac as Fort Pontchartrain du détroit; French, then British, then American; rose as the auto industry's Motor City, fourth-largest US city by 1920, then declined, filing the largest US municipal bankruptcy in 2013.
Holland, Michigan
Holland, Michigan: west Michigan city on Lake Macatawa, founded 1847 by Dutch Calvinist settlers under Albertus Van Raalte; known for Tulip Time, De Zwaan windmill, heated downtown sidewalks, Hope College; population 35,372 (2025 est.).
Houghton, Michigan
Houghton, Michigan: Upper Peninsula city on the Keweenaw Waterway, home of Michigan Technological University (founded 1885), gateway to the Keweenaw Peninsula, population about 8,560, among America's snowiest cities.
Indianapolis
Indianapolis, capital of Indiana since 1825, is a purpose-built capital founded in 1821 with a one-mile-square plat, central circle, and four diagonal avenues adapted from Washington, DC; metro population about 2.2 million.