Did You Know Four Michigan Counties are in a Different Time Zone?
Some Michigan counties are one hour behind the rest.
I had no idea that there are actually two different time zones observed in Michigan. Most of the Mitten observes Eastern Standard Time (ET) while four counties in the Upper Peninsula observe Central Standard Time (CT.) That means that those four counties are one hour behind the rest.
Which four counties in Michigan are in another time zone?
Since 1973, four Michigan counties have been in a different time zone than the rest of the state. Those four counties are Gogebic County, Iron County, Dickinson County, and Menominee County. These four counties are located on the westernmost end of the Upper Peninsula and border Wisconsin.
When were time zones introduced in the United States?
Before time zones, each city used something called local mean time, which based their time on their longitude. In 1883, time zones were introduced in the United States, but they didn't change everything at once. It wasn't until September 18th, 1885 that the state of Michigan adopted Central Standard Time. Then in 1915, Detroit ended up switching to Eastern Standard Time. In 1931 the rest of the state also adopted Eastern Standard Time.
More changes happened in 1967 after the Uniform Time Act went into effect. The basic goal of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was to simplify the official pattern of where and when daylight saving time was applied in the United States. In 1967, Michigan's Upper Peninsula observed year-round Central Standard Time with no daylight saving time. By 1973, only the four counties mentioned above followed Central Time.
Source: Wikipedia