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Name | Oakland County | State | Michigan | Seat | Pontiac | Total Area | 908 sq mi (2351.7 km2) | Land Area | 873 sq mi (2261.1 km2) | Water Area | 35 sq mi (90.7 km2) | Population | 1194156 (2000) | Density | 536.9/km2 (1391/sq mi) | Founded | January 12, 1819 |
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Oakland County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. , the population was estimated at 1,205,508. The county seat is Pontiac. Oakland County is part of the Detroit metropolitan area, though the actual city of Detroit is located in neighboring Wayne County, south of Eight Mile Road. Oakland County is home to 62 cities, villages and townships. These communities range from blue-collar, inner-ring suburbs like Ferndale and Hazel Park, to wealthy cities such as Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield Township, and Franklin. The white-collar cities of Troy, Southfield, Farmington Hills, and Auburn Hills host a diverse mix of Fortune 500 companies. The cities of Royal Oak, home of the Detroit Zoological Park, and Ferndale attract many young people to their mature, bohemian downtowns, which have many restaurants, shops and night clubs. Oakland County is also home to Oakland University, a large public institution that straddles the Auburn Hills and Rochester border.
Metro Detroit's suburbs are among the most affluent in the nation. Oakland County is the 4th wealthiest county in the United States among counties with more than one million people. The county's knowledge-based economic initiative, coined "Automation Alley", is one of the largest employment centers for engineering and related occupations in the United States. Oakland County has shared in the recent economic hardships brought on by troubles at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, although it has fared better than Detroit and Flint, as its economy is more diverse and less reliant on manufacturing jobs. All three automotive companies are major employers within southeast Michigan and have a significant presence within Oakland County.
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Major highways : |
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(Walter P. Chrysler Freeway) is the main north-south route in the region, serving Flint, Pontiac, Troy, and Detroit, before continuing south (as the Fisher and Detoit-Toledo Freeways) to serve many of the communities along the shore of Lake Erie. |
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runs northwest-southeast through Oakland County and (as the Jeffries Freeway) has its eastern terminus in downtown Detroit. |
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runs north-south from I-75 in the south to the junction of I-96 and I-696 in the north, providing a bypass through the western suburbs of Detroit. |
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(Walter P. Reuther Freeway) runs east-west from the junction of I-96 and I-275, providing a route through the northern suburbs of Detroit. Taken together, I-275 and I-696 form a semicircle around Detroit. |
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US-24 ends north of Pontiac at I-75. To the south, US 24 serves suburban Detroit and Monroe before entering Ohio. Much of US 24 in Oakland County is named Telegraph Road (US 24), and it is a major north-south road extending from Toledo, Ohio through Monroe, Wayne, and Oakland Counties to Pontiac. It gained notoriety in a song (Telegraph Road) by the group Dire Straits. |
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M-1 (Woodward Avenue) has a northern terminus in Pontiac. The route continues southerly from Oakland County into the City of Detroit, ending downtown. The Detroit Zoo is located along M-1 in Oakland County. M-1 is also home to the Woodward Dream Cruise, a classic-car cruise from Pontiac to Ferndale that is held in August. It is the largest single-day classic-car cruise in America. |
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M-5 |
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M-10: The John C. Lodge Freeway runs largely parallel to I-75 from Southfield to downtown Detroit. |
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M-15 (Ortonville Road, Main St. in Clarkston) |
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M-24 (Lapeer Road) has a southern terminus at I-75 north of Pontiac. To the north, the route continues to Lapeer and beyond. Note: M-24 and US 24 do not intersect at present, although this was the case until the 1950s. |
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M-39: The Southfield Freeway runs north-south from Southfield to Allen Park from I-94. North of 10 Mile Road, the freeway ends and continues as Southfield Road into Birmingham. |
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M-59 (Highland Road [from Pontiac westerly], Huron Street [within Pontiac] and Veterans Memorial Freeway [Pontiac to Utica]), continues east in Macomb County as Hall Road to Clinton Township and west to I-96 near Howell |
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M-102 Perhaps better known as 8 Mile Road, M-102 follows the Oakland/Wayne County boundary line for most of its length. 8 Mile Road, known by many due to the film 8 Mile, forms the dividing line between Detroit on the south and the suburbs of Macomb and Oakland counties on the north. It is also known as Baseline Road outside of Detroit, because it coincides with the baseline used in surveying Michigan; that baseline is also the boundary for a number of Michigan counties, as well as the boundary for Illinois and Wisconsin. It is designated as M-102 for much of its length in Wayne County. |
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M-150 (Rochester Road) serves as a spur highway from M-59 into the city of Rochester. |