From ArborWiki

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, and also features the restaurant Darryl's Downtown - a more reasonably-priced version of Chelsea's Common Grille run by a former chef from that restaurant.

Three Amtrak trains per day go to Jackson on their way to Chicago.

Jackson, MI, on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson%2C_MI