# Does Michigan's Strange Postal Abbreviation Hinder It?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-michigans-strange-postal-abbreviation-hinder-it/249328>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 8, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-michigans-strange-postal-abbreviation-hinder-it/249328 "2004-06-08T20:33:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-michigans-strange-postal-abbreviation-hinder-it/249328/61 "2004-06-14T03:07:43Z")

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> [@tomndebb](#):
>
> Was DTW named for the county? Or was DTW originally applied to DeTroit/Willow Run out in Ypsilanti prior to the creation of Detroit Metro and did the DTW code move to Detroit Metro along with the major airlines, leaving Willow Run with a new YIP code?

Nope. As someone who grew up able to watch the airshows at Willow Run from the backyard,\* I can tell ya that the Wayne County airport was always there (well, at least from before I was born - Isn’t that “always”?), 🙂 and was always DTW. My best friend (when I was five) lived across the road from DTW {on Middlebelt Road}, and it was already huge, though not all that busy between the end of WWII and the switch from Willow Run to DTW as the official airport of Detroit. Willow Run was always YIP (Ghod knows why the “I” in the middle, when Ypsilanti was named for the Greek general Demetrios Ypsilanti. Maybe 'cos all the southerners who moved to Michigan to work in the auto plants called it “YIP-see”?). :smack: I would guess that the high density of airports in the metro Detroit area was originally related to the auto industry, but I’m sure it was **very convenient** when WWII came along, and all those automobile factories were turned into bomber and tank factories.

\*Lived on Belleville Road near Ecorse Road 1944-1962 and 1964-65.

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