Your town - what started there that is known nationwide?

[bulldog1979]

My hometown of Negaunee, Michigan, was home to the modern iron mining industry in the US. Iron ore was discovered there in 1844 when a surveyor's magnetic compass would just spin, necessitating the use of a solar compass.

Also of note, Negaunee is home to the only naturbahn luge track in the U.S. What is interesting is that it crosses part of County Road, which is Old M-35 between Palmer and downtown Negaunee.

One town over, Ishpeming, is the birthplace of Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, a big name in nuclear chemistry. Notably, he help to discover ten elements and has element 106, seaborgium, named for him.

Ishpeming is also the hometown of John D. Voelker, a former county prosecutor and later Michigan Supreme Court Justice. Under his pen name, Robert Traver, he wrote Anatomy of a Murder, a book that was turned into a movie that was filmed in the area in 1959 in Otto Preminger.

[DandyDan]

Omaha is the hometown of Union Pacific and Warren Buffett.  I suppose they can have a claim on Mutual of Omaha and the Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.  At Offutt AFB, they have the Martin Bomber building, where they built the Enola Gay, the plane which flew the mission over Hiroshima which dropped the atomic bomb.

[MDOTFanFB]

Wyandotte, Michigan is where Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy, among others) lived when she was very young (sadly, the house she lived in has now been demolished) and is also the site of the Eureka Iron Company, the very first steel mill in America to adapt the Bessemer process.

As for the city we're a suburb of, Detroit-well, any Motown fans on here should figure that out.

[JakeFromNewEngland]

I'm not sure if it was started here, but the Subway headquarters is located in my hometown. Bic used to be here, but they have moved I believe.

[ZLoth]

Sacramento, CA:
* Aerojet which has ties to military and NASA
* McClatchy Newspapers
* Shakey's Pizza
* Tower Records
* The founder of Charles Schwab was born in Sacramento

People: http://markholtz.info/sacpeople

[US 41]

Terre Haute was where the first Coca-Cola bottle was made.

[rawmustard]

Terre Haute was where the first Coca-Cola bottle was made.

It's rather interesting you mention this and not Clabber Girl.

SPH-L710

[SD Mapman]

We don't really have anything interesting come out of Spearfish. We do have the world record for fastest temperature change and one of only two creeks that freezes from the bottom up, however.

[bing101]

Sacramento, CA:
* Aerojet which has ties to military and NASA
* McClatchy Newspapers
* Shakey's Pizza
* Tower Records
* The founder of Charles Schwab was born in Sacramento

People: http://markholtz.info/sacpeople

Wow I never thought of this.. I knew Sacramento best for its gold trade and agriculture trade after water distribution and state politics.

[kurumi]

My town:
* named after an arroyo that was in turn named after a saint who could reportedly fly
* developed an mp3 player that was quite underwhelming at the time ("Less space than a Nomad. Lame.")

[US 41]

Terre Haute was where the first Coca-Cola bottle was made.

It's rather interesting you mention this and not Clabber Girl.

SPH-L710

I never think of Clabber Girl. They have a cool museum in downtown. They also built a new building on Margaret Ave. near the SR 46 / I-70 interchange. The Hulman family (whom owns Clabber Girl) is famous for many things including owning the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

[empirestate]

Terre Haute was where the first Coca-Cola bottle was made.

It's rather interesting you mention this and not Clabber Girl.

SPH-L710

I never think of Clabber Girl. They have a cool museum in downtown. They also built a new building on Margaret Ave. near the SR 46 / I-70 interchange. The Hulman family (whom owns Clabber Girl) is famous for many things including owning the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When I think of Terre Haute, I think of Mogger's. A lot.

[golden eagle]

Jackson is the headquarters for an up-and-coming chain restaurant called Newks. They're just in the southeast right now, but they're expanding into Texas and Maryland.

[getemngo]

Grand Rapids, Michigan, my birthplace, is known for manufacturing office furniture (most notably Steelcase), Christian publishing (most notably Zondervan), craft beer (most notably Founders), retail (Meijer, SpartanNash, Gordon Food Service, MC Sports)...and Amway.   As for firsts:

• First hydroelectric generator in the US, 1880
• First city to add fluoride to its water, 1945
• First art sculpture funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Alexander Calder's La Grande Vitesse, 1969
• First 20 screen movie theater in the Western Hemisphere, Studio 28, expanded to 20 screens in 1988. (Its name comes from being on 28th St.) It closed in 2008 and is undergoing demolition right now
• A bunch of firsts in LEED-certified buildings that I don't care about

Houghton, Michigan, where I started college:

• First professional hockey team in the world, the Portage Lakers, 1903. Ironically, there's no longer any pro hockey in Houghton.
• The Keweenaw Peninsula was home to the first precious metal mining rush in the Western Hemisphere, when commercial copper mining began in 1844.

Sault Ste. Marie, where I am now, is most known for the Soo Locks at the eastern end of Lake Superior. But it was also the first European settlement in present-day Michigan, and one of the first west of the Appalachians, founded in 1668.