The U.P.
September 1, 2007 -- Camp Soldner
An area bigger than Maryland, this large rugged land is home to only about 300,000 people who not only brave, but seem to bask in, it's severe winters. It seems to me the only real use they have for its short, cool summer is to prepare for the next long winter. The people of the U.P. love to refer to themselves as "yoopers" (for U.P.-ers, get it?) and they have a strong regional identity that probably derived from both the physical isolation and their divergent interests when compared to the vast majority of mainland Michigan to the south. They're part of Michigan by law and on a map, but they like to think of the area as unique, independent, and separate. The lack of political power so few people have when bumping up against the population centers downstate doesn't help, and it's common to hear them grumble about state government and it's intrusion on their lives. In the last 50 years, better roads, commercial airline service, and a big bridge changed some of that isolation factor, but the strong identity remains as testament to the ruggedness of the land and climate in which they exist.
Stretching over 300 miles from east to west, the flat swampy eastern half of the Upper Peninsula contrasts with the steep and rugged lands of the western half. The U.P. has 30% of the total land area of Michigan but only 3% of it's population. The largest city in the U.P. is Marquette, which has barely 20,000 people. Together with the nearby towns of Negaunee and Ishpeming, the entire Marquette "metroplex" has only about 30,000 people. Some counties in the U.P. have less than 10 people per square mile. (The United States as a whole is about 100 people per square mile.) In fact, the entire U.P. taken together has only 19 people, on average, per square mile. In the western suburbs of Chicago, where we lived for the past 13 years, there were more than 19 people within a short chip-shot of our house! The U.P. is certainly a place to get away and find a little solitude for a while.
The three primary economic drivers here are mining, logging, and tourism. The big mining boom lasted from the 1840's until the 1930's, but iron mining is still alive and employs a significant portion of the workforce. The large old-growth white pine forests where mostly clear-cut in the 1890's and early 1900's, but the number of large logging trucks seen on the highways are evidence of a lot of current activity in the lumber and pulpwood industries. And tourism caters to people like us who are seeking the solitude of the rustic north in the summer, or snowmobilers who are the lifeblood of the area in the winter. Based on the number of "for sale" signs I see on businesses around the U.P., it must be tough to make a living with a small business.
The U.P. is also a place to get your head screwed on straight again, by which I mean to come to the shocking realization that not everyone in the U.S. has the same values, interests, concerns, or world-view that we do. In recent years, the news media in the U.S. has become so centralized, under the control of so few, so large, and so profit oriented, that inevitably the reported news is national and international in scope. Local stories don't stand a chance. Things seem to be different here. Local news on the one commercial television channel we can receive is really local news... with very little time spent on national or international events. For example, one evening last week, I watched the news at 11pm and kept track of each news story as it was read. There were only two short stories of national interest: an I-40 bridge in Arkansas was closed for some reason, and Alberto Gonzales resigned. That was it. The lead story on the sports was about a local boy who does a double-back flip, in mid-air, while riding a dirtbike. That was followed by more dirtbike news, a Nascar update, and a piece on a local shooting club that's inviting anyone with a gun out to the club for an afternoon of shooting fun (can you even imagine that story in Chicago?). Near the end of the sports update, they had a few scores from something called major league baseball. I'm reporting all this not to poke fun at Yoopers, but to point out that the common points-of-view and interests experienced by so many in the great urban population centers of our country are not the only ones. It's refreshing to experience some isolation and to sort of "get real". Living here, in some ways, seems more genuine... more basic... more real. I've spent so much energy in recent years getting worked up over big events and issues over which I have absolutely no control; listening while others polarize us into two groups... red and blue; left and right; liberal and conservative; right and wrong. At least for a while, I'm not being bombarded with that stuff... and I'm enjoying it.
By golly, you should see that kid do the double backflip on the motorbike. He's pretty good, eay?
T
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan
An area bigger than Maryland, this large rugged land is home to only about 300,000 people who not only brave, but seem to bask in, it's severe winters. It seems to me the only real use they have for its short, cool summer is to prepare for the next long winter. The people of the U.P. love to refer to themselves as "yoopers" (for U.P.-ers, get it?) and they have a strong regional identity that probably derived from both the physical isolation and their divergent interests when compared to the vast majority of mainland Michigan to the south. They're part of Michigan by law and on a map, but they like to think of the area as unique, independent, and separate. The lack of political power so few people have when bumping up against the population centers downstate doesn't help, and it's common to hear them grumble about state government and it's intrusion on their lives. In the last 50 years, better roads, commercial airline service, and a big bridge changed some of that isolation factor, but the strong identity remains as testament to the ruggedness of the land and climate in which they exist.
Stretching over 300 miles from east to west, the flat swampy eastern half of the Upper Peninsula contrasts with the steep and rugged lands of the western half. The U.P. has 30% of the total land area of Michigan but only 3% of it's population. The largest city in the U.P. is Marquette, which has barely 20,000 people. Together with the nearby towns of Negaunee and Ishpeming, the entire Marquette "metroplex" has only about 30,000 people. Some counties in the U.P. have less than 10 people per square mile. (The United States as a whole is about 100 people per square mile.) In fact, the entire U.P. taken together has only 19 people, on average, per square mile. In the western suburbs of Chicago, where we lived for the past 13 years, there were more than 19 people within a short chip-shot of our house! The U.P. is certainly a place to get away and find a little solitude for a while.
The three primary economic drivers here are mining, logging, and tourism. The big mining boom lasted from the 1840's until the 1930's, but iron mining is still alive and employs a significant portion of the workforce. The large old-growth white pine forests where mostly clear-cut in the 1890's and early 1900's, but the number of large logging trucks seen on the highways are evidence of a lot of current activity in the lumber and pulpwood industries. And tourism caters to people like us who are seeking the solitude of the rustic north in the summer, or snowmobilers who are the lifeblood of the area in the winter. Based on the number of "for sale" signs I see on businesses around the U.P., it must be tough to make a living with a small business.
The U.P. is also a place to get your head screwed on straight again, by which I mean to come to the shocking realization that not everyone in the U.S. has the same values, interests, concerns, or world-view that we do. In recent years, the news media in the U.S. has become so centralized, under the control of so few, so large, and so profit oriented, that inevitably the reported news is national and international in scope. Local stories don't stand a chance. Things seem to be different here. Local news on the one commercial television channel we can receive is really local news... with very little time spent on national or international events. For example, one evening last week, I watched the news at 11pm and kept track of each news story as it was read. There were only two short stories of national interest: an I-40 bridge in Arkansas was closed for some reason, and Alberto Gonzales resigned. That was it. The lead story on the sports was about a local boy who does a double-back flip, in mid-air, while riding a dirtbike. That was followed by more dirtbike news, a Nascar update, and a piece on a local shooting club that's inviting anyone with a gun out to the club for an afternoon of shooting fun (can you even imagine that story in Chicago?). Near the end of the sports update, they had a few scores from something called major league baseball. I'm reporting all this not to poke fun at Yoopers, but to point out that the common points-of-view and interests experienced by so many in the great urban population centers of our country are not the only ones. It's refreshing to experience some isolation and to sort of "get real". Living here, in some ways, seems more genuine... more basic... more real. I've spent so much energy in recent years getting worked up over big events and issues over which I have absolutely no control; listening while others polarize us into two groups... red and blue; left and right; liberal and conservative; right and wrong. At least for a while, I'm not being bombarded with that stuff... and I'm enjoying it.
By golly, you should see that kid do the double backflip on the motorbike. He's pretty good, eay?
T
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