It took tranquilizer darts, slings, a 600-mile road trip, and 35-below cold, but the western U.P. has had moose ever since
Here is a true U.P. story most people have never heard. About 40 years ago, Michigan brought moose back to the Upper Peninsula by tranquilizing them up in Canada and flying them out one by one, dangling beneath helicopters.
It was called the Michigan Moose Lift, and it is exactly as wild as it sounds.
Michigan’s Moose Lift helped restore moose to the western U.P. in the 1980s. Image/video courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Moose had all but vanished from the U.P. by the early 1900s. The DNR wanted them back, so they struck a deal with Ontario to borrow some from Algonquin Provincial Park, north of Toronto, where moose numbered in the thousands.
Getting them here was the hard part. A small helicopter would find a moose out on a frozen lake, and a biologist would dart it with a tranquilizer. Once the animal was down, a bigger helicopter swooped in, a crew slipped a sling around it, and the moose was lifted into the air, blindfolded to keep it calm.
From there, each moose was radio-collared, crated, and loaded onto a truck for a 600-mile haul from Ontario to the woods north of Lake Michigamme in Marquette County.
The very first one arrived on January 23, 1985. She was a 965-pound pregnant cow, and she had just made a 16-hour overnight trip from Canada.
It was 35 degrees below zero that day. Almost 400 people showed up anyway, just to watch her step out into her new home.
It went so well that they did it again in 1987 with 30 more moose. By then word had gotten out, and somewhere between 500 and 700 people packed into viewing stands to watch. Cars were backed up six miles down the road.
All told, 59 moose made the trip. Local sportsmen’s groups chipped in to help cover the roughly $60,000 cost.
It worked. Those few dozen transplants became a herd that today numbers somewhere around 500 animals, spread across Marquette, Baraga, and Iron counties in the western U.P.
They are not the U.P.’s only moose. A separate herd has roamed Isle Royale out in Lake Superior for over a century. But the moose you might spot along a western U.P. highway today are the descendants of animals that once flew through the air under a helicopter.
If you want to dig into the whole story, Van Riper State Park near Champion has a moose display with photos, antlers, and even footage from the lift. It is also one of the better corners of the U.P. to keep your eyes peeled for the real thing.
Moose are famously hard to find on purpose, though, so if you want a guaranteed up-close look at big U.P. wildlife, America’s largest bear ranch near Newberry is a surer bet.
It is one more reason the U.P. never stops surprising you, right alongside wonders like the painted cliffs of Pictured Rocks.
Next time you spot a moose standing at the edge of the woods up here, give a little nod to the helicopter pilots, the dart-gun biologists, and one very patient pregnant cow who started it all at 35 below.
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Topics: Michigan Moose Lift, moose, Marquette County, Van Riper State Park, Michigamme, Michigan DNR, wildlife, Upper Peninsula, Yooper
Sources: The Mining Journal, the Michigan DNR, and the Friends of Algonquin Park.
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