This month's "For Namesake" town is Milan, Michigan, one of 10 Milan's in the US from the book "For Namesake - a Travel Book"[1]

Milan, Michigan (42.084126, -83.681074) http://mapjam.com/milanmi

Milan, Michigan is a town of 5,836 located in Monroe and Washtenaw Counties along US Route 23. It lies 20 miles northwest of Monroe, the county seat of Monroe County and 15 miles south of Ann Arbor, the county seat of Washtenaw County. Milan is on the Saline River, which is a tributary of the River Raisin. The closest universities are Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Concordia University in Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor also has a campus of Cleary University. US Route 12 that passes north of Milan, through the community of Saline, is known as the Pulaski Memorial Highway.

The first settler in what would become the town of Milan was John Marvin who arrived in 1831. The same year, Bethuel Hack and Harmon Allen arrived. These three men, with their families, formed the nucleus for the present day Milan. There was no master plan for a town, it just sort of happened on its own. By the spring of 1833 there were enough settlers in the area for a post office. It was established with Bethuel Hack as the first postmaster, and designated as Farmersville, because it was primarily a farming community. In 1834 David A Woodard took over as postmaster and promptly renamed the community as Woodard mills in honor of himself. A short time later Henry Tolan, the town druggist served as interim postmaster and again renamed the town; this time to Tolanville, also after himself. In 1836 the townsfolk chose to name the town Milan, after the township that it was a part of. Milan Township had been named after the Italian city because of its many immigrants from that country. The Postmaster General agreed that henceforth all mail for the town would be directed to Milan. Milan was officially accepted as a Home-rule Village in 1885. Eighty-two years later, in 1967, it was formally incorporated as a Michigan City. _[2]

In Milan you may visit the Hack House Museum, Milan Dragway, Talladay Farms Corn Maze and the Wasem Fruit Farm. The larger city of Ann Arbor offers the Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, Charles Baird Carillion, Cobblestone Farm Museum, Exhibit Museum of Natural History, Gerald R. Ford Library, Kempf House Museum, Kreft Center Gallery, Leslie Science Center, Matthaei Botanical Garden, Michigan Theater, University of Michigan Art Museum, University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of Archeology, University of Michigan Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry and the Washtenaw County Courthouse. Dundee has Farmer J’s Corn Maze, Hoopt’s Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze, Old Mill Museum and the Southeast Michigan Pioneer Wine Trail. Monroe offers the Eby Log Cabin, Farmer Charley’s Corn Maze Adventures, Monroe County Courthouse, Monroe County Historical Museum, Monroe County Labor History Museum, River Raisin Battlefield Visitors Center, Sawyer Homestead (1873) and the Vietnam Veterans Historical Museum. In Saline you may visit Coleman’s Corn Maze, Lotz Orchard, Saline Depot Museum, Rentschler Farm Museum and the Spotted Dog Winery. Ypsilanti offers the Makielski Berry farm, Michigan Firehouse Museum, Riverside Arts Center, Wiards Orchard, Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum, Ypsilanti Fire Station Museum and the Ypsilanti Historical Museum.

There are two lakes near Milan along the Huron River; Ford Lake and Belleville Lake. State parks in the area include Cambridge Junction Historical State Park, Lake Huron State Recreation Area, Pinckney State Recreation Area, Waterloo State Recreation Area and Walter J. Hays State Park.

Notable residents of the Washtenaw county seat of Ann Arbor include Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist; Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker; Loren D. Estleman, author; Jim Harbaugh, former NFL quarterback; Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza; Iggy Pop (James Newell Ostenberg, Jr.), rock musician; Bob Seger, rock musician; Samuel C.C. Ting, Nobel Prize winning physicist; and Martha Vickers, actress.

Photo: Saline River Dam in Saline near Milan, Michigan (Wikimedia Commons - Dwight Burdette CC_BY-SA)

Notes:

1. http://www.amzn.com/B00CBM6JFK

2. http://www.historicmilan.com