Along with healing racial wounds, Michigan faces a number of other challenges in the coming years. The state must wrestle with an increasingly poor urban population, growing concern with quality of life, and an overdependence on the ever-fluctuating fortunes of the automobile industry.
On the positive side, one of Michigan’s enduring strengths is its abundant natural resources, including one of the nation’s largest forest areas and a staggering supply of freshwater—a commodity that, in the long run, will probably prove more valuable than oil. With a 19th-century history of land scarred from clear-cutting virgin forests and lackadaisical mining practices, one hopes Michigan has learned some lessons. Only history will tell if the state chooses to protect or exploit its vast cache of natural riches.