Jackson is a city of about 35,000 people located a 45 minute drive west of Ann Arbor on I-94. During Michigan's industrial age, Jackson became an important location for automobile and aviation parts production, in part because of its location as the "crossroads of Michigan": Jackson sits at the intersection of east-west I-94 with US-127, which runs north to Lansing, and at the intersection of the railroads which pre-dated these roads. Jackson has suffered during Michigan's deindustrialization, and is currently struggling to reorient itself - the largest employer at present is the maximum security State Prison.
Downtown Jackson is architecturally interesting for the handful of high-rises built in the early 20th-century.
Three Amtrak trains per day go to Jackson on their way to Chicago, and two Greyhound buses go each way daily. The Michigan Flyer bus used to stop in Jackson, but no longer does.
Jackson, MI, on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson%2C_MI
Jackson has its own LocalWiki page: https://localwiki.org/jackson/