How And Why Are These 4 Michigan Counties Part of the Central Time Zone?

I don't know about you but now that summer has come to an end and the days are getting shorter I can't help but wonder: when does Daylight Saving Time start?

Or end? Or whatever it does this time of year; no one even knows why we even have it in the first place!

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FYI Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts in March when we jump forward an hour and then it ends the first Sunday in November when we "fall" back. This year DST ends on Sunday November 5, 2023.

Don't even get me started on why Daylight Saving Time even exists in the first place or why places like that little corner of Indiana or the entire state of Arizona don't have to participate, that's a separate issue--  but did you know there was a time when Michigan was part of the CENTRAL time zone?

What Time Is It?

A TikTok account associated with the Dearborn Historical Museum (@DearbornHistoricalMuseum) recently shared this unique and lesser-known part of Michigan history. The video starts off by pointing out the fact that Michigan has really late sunsets compared to the other states; something I myself never thought much of until I moved further out into the Midwest to states like Nebraska and Missouri.

Between the years of 1885 until 1915 the state of Michigan was located entirely within the Central Time Zone. However, due to growing business relations in addition to a desire to keep up with the times, Detroit decided it wanted to be in the same time zone as New York City and petitioned Congress to adopt Eastern Standard Time.

Cities like Ann Arbor and Flint were on board with the idea of switching time zones, but many farmers and parents across Michigan opposed the idea of the sun going down "later" in the day.

Even to this day there are still four Michigan counties who are located within the Central Time Zone: Dickinson, Gogebic, Iron, and Menominee.

Uniform Time Act

The Dearborn Historical Museum further explained that Michigan didn't even originally participate in Daylight Savings Time either! When Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966 Michigan voted to reject it, although that was short lived; by 1972 Michigan voted to once again start observing Daylight Saving Time. I had no idea there was so much back and forth when it came to Michigan clocks! And don't forget about the Upper Peninsula either-- its place in this whole time zone debacle was a battle in itself.

Do you think Michigan should stop observing Daylight Saving Time once again?