Kalamazoo and West Michigan About Kalamazoo Kalamazoo, the home of WMU's main campus, is the fifth largest city in Michigan, with a county population of more than 220,000 residents. Kalamazoo offers commercial transportation by train, bus, and major airline. Local festivals attract crowds in the hundreds of thousands. The city is home to the Kalamazoo Ballet, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and the prestigious Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival.
Theater is alive and thriving in Kalamazoo.
There are also AAA minor league baseball teams in Battle Creek and Grand Rapids. Kalamazoo is just 40 minutes from Lake Michigan beaches and only three to four hours from Michigan's ski country, considered the best skiing in the central U.S. Excellent local skiing is only 30 minutes away. The area offers a wide variety of opportunities for entertainment, culture, recreation, and employment. The WMU seal and many other logos and marks appearing in these pages are registered trademarks of Western Michigan University. This page is maintained by the Office of University Relations.