Upper Peninsula MI

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac. It is bounded primarily by Lake Superior to the north, separated from the Canadian province of Ontario at the east end by the St. Marys River, and flanked by Lake Huron and Lake Michigan along much of its south. Although the peninsula extends as a geographic feature into the state of Wisconsin, the state boundary follows the Montreal and Menominee rivers and a line connecting them.

The Upper Peninsula contains 29% of the land area of Michigan but only 3% of its total population. Residents are nicknamed Yoopers (derived from “UP-ers”) and have a strong regional identity, enhanced by the perception that the rest of the state neglects them. Proposals have been made to establish the UP as a separate state, but have failed to gain traction. Its largest cities are Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie, Escanaba, Menominee, Houghton, and Iron Mountain. Because of the surrounding waters and northern latitude, it receives more snow than most of the eastern U.S. The heavily forested land, soil types, short growing season, and logistical factors (e.g. long distance to market, lack of infrastructure) make the Upper Peninsula poorly suited for agriculture. The region is home to a variety of wildlife, including moose, wolves, coyotes, deer, foxes, bears, bobcats, eagles, hawks, owls, and smaller animals.

U.P. Reader -- Issue #3 [PB]

978-1-61599-447-2
$14.95
In stock
1
Product Details
UPC: 978-1-61599-447-2
Brand: Modern History Press
Binding: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Author: Mikel B. Classen
Pages: 96

Michigan's Upper Peninsula is blessed with a treasure trove of storytellers, poets, and historians, all seeking to capture a sense of Yooper Life from settler's days to the far-flung future. Since 2017, the U.P. Reader offers a rich collection of their voices that embraces the U.P.'s natural beauty and way of life, along with a few surprises.

The twenty-three works in this third annual volume take readers on U.P. road and boat trips from the Keweenaw to the Soo. Every page is rich with descriptions of the characters and culture that make the Upper Peninsula worth living in and writing about. U.P. writers span genres from humor to history and from science fiction to poetry. This issue also includes imaginative fiction from the Dandelion Cottage Short Story Award winners, honoring the amazing young writers enrolled in all of the U.P.'s schools.

Featuring the words of Larry Buege, Mikel B. Classen, Deborah K. Frontiera, Jan Kellis, Amy Klco, David Lehto, Sharon Kennedy, Bobby Mack, Becky Ross Michael, T. Sanders, Donna Searight Simons and Frank Searight, Emma Locknane, Lucy Woods, Kaitlin Ambuehl, T. Kilgore Splake, Aric Sundquist, Ninie G. Syarikin, and Tyler R. Tichelaar.

Save this product for later

First inhabited by Algonquian-speaking native American tribes, the area was explored by French colonists, then occupied by British forces, before being ceded to the newly established United States in the late 18th century. After being assigned to various territorial jurisdictions, it was granted to the newly formed state of Michigan as part of the settlement of a dispute with Ohio over the city of Toledo. The region’s exploitable timber resources and the discovery of iron and copper deposits in the 19th century brought immigrants, especially French Canadian, Finnish, Swedish, Cornish, and Italian. (The peninsula includes the only counties in the United States where a plurality of residents claim Finnish ancestry.[1]) With the exhaustion of readily available minerals, the area’s economy declined in the 20th century, largely becoming dependent on logging and tourism.

 

Comments are closed.