About Jackson

Jackson is centrally located at the crossroads of Highway 127 (to Lansing) and Interstate 94 (to Detroit).  It's a convenient 25-40 minute drive (depending on how fast you drive!) from the capitol and home of MSU: Lansing, the city of Ann Arbor which is home to the University of Michigan, or Toledo, Ohio.  It is about a three hour drive from Chicago or a one hour drive from Detroit as well.  Most people don't realize everything Jackson has to offer and unfortunately, we are widely known for our huge state prison and this has stuck to us like glue.  But Jackson has so much to offer.  For the city's size, we have a surprisingly large number of restaurants, stores, family events, beautiful parks and you don't have to drive all over heck to get to all of them.   On top of that, the city and surrounding townships are full of beautiful old houses (and new ones too) very reasonably priced.  Because of the central location on major highways, you'd think Jackson would be booming, right?.  Well, not exactly.  Over the past 20-25 years, Jackson has experienced an alarming decline in all of it's manufacturing businesses (a good 80% of all business in Jackson).  Most of these jobs and factories have gone to Asia and Mexico.  This greed-driven flight has left Jackson over a barrel and we are having to quickly reinvent ourselves to become something a little different from the past and not end up a city full of skilled yet unemployed blue-collar workers.  Many of those who have lived here a lifetime (or close to it) aren't so quick to let go of what they know, but in order to survive, Jackson must sell itself as something more than just the city that used to make things and died, or that had the world's largest walled prison at one time.

Jackson's population has shrunk to about 36,000 but somehow it has managed to keep it's head above water and still operate in the black as pointed out by then-Mayor Martin Griffin.  This small city realized about eight years ago that if they wish to survive and flourish they must change their focus away from solely being manufacturing.  With this renewed outlook and wise planning Jackson has found really great things to invest in and look forward to.  For more on what's happening in Jackson, go to my Jackson Links page.

Here are a couple Jackson, Michigan History Links

These are great links about Jackson and the railroads that dominated the town for a hundred years.

Jackson Michigan History - Short and Sweet

Jackson Michigan Railroad

This site was last updated 07/23/08