Reflections on the UP

It is Sunday morning and I am sitting in bed in a funky, old Victorian hotel in the town of Nahma, MI. THis hotel has the feel of a place loveingly built in 1840, moderized in 1906 and maintained, but never again renovated in the 105 years since. At any rate, since I am about to leave the UP and begin a new phase of this trip, I thought I'd reflect back a bit and share with you what I've learned.

First, formost of this trip so far, I've been following something called the Niagara Escarpment. An escarpment is a cliff which developed over time by erosion of soft rock which sits beneath much harder rock. As the soft rock erodes, it leaves cliffs, and as with the Niagara Escaprment, lots of waterfalls. The biggest and best know is, of course, Niagara falls, but the UP has over 120 little falls scattered across it.  In fact, if I understand this geology correctly (and I may not) it is this erosion that resulted in Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan whereas lakes Ontarion and Superior were formed from volcanic activity. Most of what I've seen of the Niagara escarpment is not as dramatic as Niagara Falls, but the cliffs have a unique and rugged beauty and provide the lakes with shoreline far more interesting and impressive than I had anticipated.

I first picked up the Escarpment in Little Falls, NY which is a perfect example of the beauty, and challenge of the escarpment. Little Falls sits under cliffs with multiple small waterfalls. It developed as a town because canals and locks needed to be built to allow ships to navigate around the rapids in the river. In fact, it is the Niagara Escarpment that made the Erie Canal, just a few miles further along from Little Falls, a necessity.

The escarpment  continues from Little Falls through Hamilton, Ontario and up the Bruce Peninsular to Tobermory and then up to Sault St Marie when it turns back south across the UP and down to Wisconsin.  This has been almost exactly my route.

  

I had no idea when I planned this trip that I would be following this geological formation, but I am very happy I have been doing so.

  

So what about the UP? Here's what I've learned:

• The UP is HUGE. It's landmass is over 16000 sq miles (All of Massachusetts is only a bit over 10,000 sq miles), It's east/ west axis runs 320 miles long and its north/ south axis is 120 miles wide. It is bounded on the north by Lake Superior, on the east by the St. Mary's River, on the southeast by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and on the southwest by Wisconsin.  I was overly ambitious, to say the least, to think I could explore all of this in only 5 days 

• The UP has only 300,000 people living in this huge space (that's less than half the population of Boston proper)  and it has been losing population over the past few decades. Large numbers of Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian emigrants came to the Upper Peninsula in the mid 1800's to work the copper mines and their descendants make up the bulk of the population today. (My niece married a Dane and I could see him live and work here very happily.  He might even find a demand for his expertese in Danish history!)  Today residents refer to themselves as "Yoopers" (U.P-ers) and maintain a strong and proud regional identity.

• The UP grew prosperous when copper was discovered to be here by the Europeans. In fact, the Indians had been mining the copper for 400 years. Between 1890 and 1920, 10% of the world's copper came from the UP.

• Today the economy is based primarily on logging the vast forests and tourism. The land and climate are not very suitable for agriculture due to the long harsh winters. About 1/3rd of the land is government owned forest land and much of that is set aside as national and state park and used solely for recreation, mostly during the very short summer tho there is a ski mountain and lots of snowmobiling in the winter.  

• Of the 15 counties, I spent time in 3, really only exploring one, Keweenah.
• The Keweenaw Peninsula is the northernmost part of the peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, part of a larger region of the peninsula called the Copper Country.  Copper Harbor, population 55, is its northernmost town. It is rugged land pitted with coves of rock and sand with forests kissing the water.   The lake water is clear, often calm, and suprisingly warm.  Red and I spent a day driving around this piece of the UP, stopping frequently to admire it's beauty and to walk the coves and let the dogs swim. There is no pretention anywhere - just a sense of good honest people who love living there and are happy that many other people enjoy their part of heaven, but only for a few weeks a year and then go home. I think the people who live here year round do so because of its isolation and scanty population while the reason most people choose NOT to live here year round is the long and exceptionally harsh winters. Records of 390 inches of snow or more have been set in many communities in this area. The Keweenaw Peninsula averages more snowfall than almost anywhere in the United States—more than anywhere east of the Mississippi River and the most of all non-mountainous regions of the continental United States.  The howling winds off the lake cause ice to form into what appears to be glaciers crusting the rocks and cliffs.  It is awe-inspiring to see these 15 foot high measuring posts planted alone the side of the road scaled to record the snowfall on the ground. 
• As much as I enjoyed touring this county, I did NOT like the B&B we stayed in.  Called the Dapple Gray and situated beautifully across the lake and above the trees providing exquisite views from our private balcony, it is decorated with mounted dead animals from squirrels to bear.  Our room alone had foxes and rabbits and animals we did not recognize on the walls and in alcoves and flying overhead. For me, this was horror.  Moreover, the innkeepers treated their guests - and it was sold out - as necessary evils clearly preferring not to interact with any of us if at all possible.  Ruth, the lady of the house, is really an antique glass dealer and the only time she engaged at all was when Red asked her about a particular piece of satin glass and she could explain the difference between satin and velvet glass.  As comfortable and clean as the inn was, and as beautiful as the area was, I was happy to leave.

View from our balcony at the Dapple Gray



Lake Superior beach




• My first experience of the UP was Mackinac County and St Ignace, the jumping off point to Mackinac Island.  As you already know I decided against going onto the island and instead drove across the straits of Mackinac over one of the longest bridges in the US opened in the late 1950's.  In St. Ignace, I camped in a lodge in the woods, just a small step up in comfort from a tent and outhouse, across from Lake Huron surrounded by families who enjoy the outdoor camping experience and fishing.  In fact,  Mackinac county is for fishermen.  In addition to Lake Huron and Lake Michgan,  it has lots of small, inland lakes and streams and driving the area you see commercial and pleasure fishingboats and fishermen everywhere.
• My last experience of the UP was Delta county and the tiny town of Nahma.  Delta is the walleye capital of the US and I had my first taste of this fish and now like it even better than trout. It also has over 200 miles of shoreline, the most in the continental USA.  Interestingly, the waters of Lake Michigan in Nahma are brown, residual still from the logging and mill operations that were the raison d'etre of this area and which closed way back in the 1950's.  So much environmental damage was done that the rivers and lakes still run brown with sawdust.  We made the mistake of taking the dogs to the beach and Tramp came back from her swim brown instead of white and stinky as could be.  We hosed her down and hosed her down and hosed her down and she still smells awful!

• As Red and I drive south today into Wisconsin I will be a bit sad to leave the UP. I feel as if I got just a tiny, but very tasty tidbit of this part of the world.