It seems Michigan was a winter wonderland through the 70’s until the climatic cycle slowly gave us less snow in the winter. I remember a childhood of skiing and sledding on the hill on his property. The only weather related story to all of this was the Water/Winter Wonderland inscriptions on the plates. The only plate I have held onto is a 1955 plate (the year I was born) which was a dark green with white lettering, Sadly all the plates my grandfather had saved remained with the property when is was sold after he passed. (With the exception of 1976-1978 which had red, white and blue plates for the centennial.)

Water-Winter Wonderland remained on plates until 1982. With this slogan change, the plates were produced with galvanized steel in order to survive the Michigan winters.

Then it changed to WATER-WINTER WONDERLAND until 1967. Michigan started printing WATER WONDERLAND on license plates, proclaiming one of our greatest attractions. When the post-war era rang in and baby boomers flooded the economy, tourism also picked up. In the early 30s, they also began using Vv on plates to honor our nation’s veterans. During this time, they also started issuing metal tabs to attach to their plates to avoid issuing new ones to conserve metal during the war. Michigan offered half-year registration to car owners until about 1946. When the Great Depression hit, many people could no longer afford to pay for their car registration.

The job then went back to the prisons in 1920. Prisoners had the duty of making plates in 1918. Then embossed steel plates replaced them. They were made out of heavy cast iron then sealed with a glossy porcelain finish.

It wasn’t until 1910 that Michigan issued its first official license plates. When my grandfather was still alive he kept every Michigan license plate he owned nailed to a wall in his shed from the first plate Michigan released through 1990.

Michigan license plates by year