How the U.P. became the U.P.

History & Culture

People, places, traditions, industries, and turning points that shaped Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Central U.P.

23 stories from this part of the U.P.

Aug 20, 20262 min read

In 1951 a Lumber Company Put an Entire U.P. Town Up for Sale. The Ads Came With One Condition: Whoever Bought It Had to Employ the People.

When the Bay de Noquet Lumber Company cut its last log in July 1951, it advertised the whole town of Nahma for sale. Life...

Aug 15, 20263 min read

A Pickle Company Built a Cartoonist a Barrel to Live In on a U.P. Lake. Fame Chased Him Out of It in Ten Years.

The Teenie Weenies were two inches tall. William Donahey drew them for the newspapers for decades, a civilization of tiny people improvising a life...

Aug 14, 20263 min read

The Government Built an 86-Foot Lighthouse on Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast in 1874. Getting There Still Takes a Hike.

The danger at Au Sable Point is that you cannot see it. A ridge of sandstone runs off the point and continues nearly a...

Aug 12, 20263 min read

Michigan Cut Both Its State Fairs Loose in 2010. Only the One in Escanaba Is Still Standing.

Michigan has one state fair. It is not in Detroit, it has not been in Detroit since 2009, and the reason it still exists...

Aug 2, 20264 min read

Her Husband Died Before the Light Was Finished. She Kept It Alone for 18 Years, Until the Fire.

Mary Terry lit the Sand Point Lighthouse for the first time in 1868, two weeks after her husband died, and kept it alone until...

Jul 28, 20264 min read

The U.P.’s Most Photographed Ice Formation Has to Be Built From Scratch Every Winter. Right Now It Doesn’t Exist.

The Eben Ice Caves form every winter when seep water freezes across sandstone overhangs in Rock River Canyon. They are not caves, and the...

Jul 27, 20263 min read

Michigan’s Most Famous Rock Formation Lost a Piece of Itself Overnight. Fishermen Called It In by Cell Phone.

Miners Castle is the signature landmark of Pictured Rocks, and on April 13, 2006, its northeast turret collapsed into Lake Superior. The rock it...

Jul 27, 20264 min read

A Scrabble Loss Cost One Man 10 Years of Letter-Writing. He Got “Yooper” Into the Dictionary — and They Botched the Entry.

The Yooper definition entered Merriam-Webster in 2014 after a Delta County prosecutor lost a Scrabble challenge and spent a decade mailing proof to a...

Jul 26, 20263 min read

Every Fall, the U.P.’s Monarch Butterflies Gather at One Lighthouse to Jump Lake Michigan. The First Wave Lands in Weeks.

From mid-August into September, monarchs funnel down the Stonington Peninsula to the cedars around the 1865 Peninsula Point Lighthouse, roost, and wait for the...

Jul 25, 20263 min read

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