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• During the 1830’s, Lansing was known as Biddle City.
  
• Jacob Frederick Cooley, Lansing Township’s first permanent resident, settled here in 1837.
  
• Joseph North challenged Jacob Cooley’s claim as the first resident.
  
• Lansing was named after New York patriot John Lansing.
  
• The township was offically created in February, 1847.
  
• Lansing became the second state capital of Michigan because the first capital, Detroit, was too close to the border and vulnerable to an invasion by British forces of Canada.
  
• There were eight registered voters when Lansing became the state capital.
  
• A sawmill was the one industry present in Lansing when it became the state capital.
  
• The top three employers in the Lansing area are General Motors Corporation, the State of Michigan and Michigan State University.
  
• The Grand River runs through downtown Lansing and is Michigan’s longest river.
  
• Ransom Eli Olds (R.E. Olds) founded the Oldsmobile, later a division of General Motors, in 1897. 
  
• Lansing is located in Ingham County and is the only capital in the United States not located in the county seat.
  
• The county seat of Ingham County is Mason, Michigan.
  
• Ingham County was named after Samuel D. Ingham, the Secretary of Treasury under President Andrew Jackson.
  
• Michigan State University is the only university in the nation to have three medical colleges. They are Human Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
  
• Michigan State University was established in 1855, dedicated in 1857, and is the oldest center for the teaching of scientific agriculture in the nation.
  
• Michigan State University Museum was organized in the 1860’s and is one of the earliest museums on a university campus in the Midwest. This is the oldest museum located in the Lansing area.
  
• Lansing’s first school opened in 1847.
  
• The Michigan State Capitol Building was modeled after the nation’s capitol building in Washington D.C.
  
• Elijah Myers designed the Michigan State Capitol Building and it was dedicated on January 1, 1879.