The Cornish Pump: Iron Mountain's 725-Ton Engine
The Chapin Mine sat under a cedar swamp and flooded relentlessly, so Iron Mountain got a 725-ton answer: the largest steam-driven pumping engine ever...
Land, water, weather, and the road there
Outdoors & Travel
Upper Peninsula wild places, practical travel context, outdoor traditions, and the stories behind the view.
Everything in this lane
Newest first. Narrow it to the part of the U.P. you care about.
Isle Royale Greenstone: Michigan’s One-Source State Gem
Chlorastrolite, the Isle Royale greenstone, exists only on Isle Royale and the Keweenaw. Collecting on the island is illegal, a senator compared it to...
After 111 Days of Deep Snow, DNR Watches U.P. Deer Herd
Michigan DNR says the 2025-26 U.P. winter exceeded its severe-winter threshold by 21 days. Biologists expect fewer deer, but no exact herd count was...
Estivant Pines: The Old-Growth Forest Copper Harbor Saved
Copper Harbor’s giant white pines were sold to loggers, until a 1970 newspaper column sparked a Save the Pines campaign. Neighbors and even schoolkids...
Cut River Bridge: US-2's 147-Foot Thrill and Troll Door
The Cut River Bridge carries US-2 across 147 feet of thin air, one of only two like it in Michigan, with a troll door...
Bond Falls: The U.P. Waterfall That Never Runs Dry
Bond Falls near Paulding may be Michigan's prettiest waterfall, and its famously steady flow has a secret: a power company dam keeps the tap...
Chapel Rock: The Lone Pine Living on Thin Air
The lone pine on Chapel Rock at Pictured Rocks lives on a bare sandstone pillar, fed by roots stretched across open air since its...
Lake Superior Agates: The U.P.'s Billion-Year Treasure
Lake Superior agates are the U.P.'s favorite beach treasure, banded stones about a billion years old. How they formed, and how to spot one...
Kingston Plains: The U.P.'s Ghost Forest of Stumps
The Kingston Plains near Grand Marais is a U.P. ghost forest: a haunting plain of century-old stumps where logging and fire left a forest...
Granot Loma: The World's Largest Log Cabin
The largest log cabin in the world sits on Lake Superior near Marquette. The man who built Granot Loma also helped finance the Empire...
Toumey Nursery: The U.P.'s Hidden Tree Powerhouse
Most people drive right past it. But this 90-year-old nursery outside Watersmeet is the last of its kind in the eastern U.S. — and...
Why Tahquamenon Falls Runs the Color of Root Beer
The biggest waterfall in the U.P. runs the color of root beer, and no, it isn't dirty. Here's the real reason behind the nickname,...
Lake Sturgeon: Michigan's Living Dinosaur Fish
Seven feet long, older than the ice age, and still gliding along the bottom of the water you grew up on. There's a fish...
Stories appear newest first and keep their original dates, corrections, and source records. Open the outdoors collection Corrections policy