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All Things Michigan

Michigan travels, events, photos, and more

Filtering by Tag: yoopers

2014 Trenary Outhouse Classic is February 22nd

Andrew Norton

Winter is tough. Yoopers have to be even tougher to make it through an Upper Peninsula winter. This winter has been one of the coldest and snowiest of recent memory and the need to get out and blow off some steam is greater than most years. Yoopers have found a great way to get out of the winter blahs - the Trenary Outhouse Classic. 2014 marks the 21st year for this Yooper tradition.

Want an idea of what the Trenary Outhouse Classic is all about? Watch this video from the 2013 Trenary Outhouse Classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac8nSE3nANA

Check out the Trenary Outhouse Classic website for more information.

Article on driving Michigan's U.P.

Andrew Norton

It's nice to see Michigan's Upper Peninsula get some more love from the national media. The only downside? Where's the love from Michigan's media in the lower peninsula? We have such a treasure north of the Mackinac Bridge that (in my humble opinion) does not get touted enough. Anyway, back to the aforementioned article on the U.P. It's written from the perspective of a native Detroiter whose last visit was as a child and is now returning to look for nature and antiques. At least, that's what I took from the article.

It's a brief foray into the wonders (both the natural and those built by man) of the U.P. In fact, I would say that my biggest complaint about the article is that it is too brief. It only mentions traveling from the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on up to Copper Harbor and all in between. My second biggest complaint is that there seems to be a preset notion in the writer's mind that comes through in his writing. It's like he expects to find that the U.P. is some backwards locale with a garage sale economy.

However, with that said, my favorite quote from the article might have been meant as a jab, but I take it as a complement -

the U.P. is an out-of-the-way, out-of-the-past American preserve.

I like the fact that the U.P. has not yet (and hopefully never will) become part of the homogenized, cookie cutter, chunk of America that has Wal-Marted it's way across small towns rendering them nearly identical to the one you previously passed through.

The U.P. and it's residents are unique and I would never change that.

With all that said, if you want to read the article - click here.

Some of the best folks you will ever meet live in Michigan's U.P.

Andrew Norton

Take that headline at face value because I don't believe it is hyperbole. The people that inhabit the U.P. are as kind as the views up there are beautiful. The ongoing Sleeper Lake Fire has provided a chance for more of the state (those of us below the bridge in particular) to see just how wonderful Yoopers are. Today's Detroit Free Press has an article about the Upper Peninsula community of Newberry in particular. Newberry is the largest community (about 2,000 folks) in range of the fire and has been used as a base camp of sorts for firefighters and other necessary workers involved with fighting the fire.

My favorite quote from the article -

"We are Yoopers," said Janet Linck, who owns a Jimmy Buffett-style restaurant in Newberry. "If our backyard is on fire, we'll just go camping in the front yard."

That right there sums up the mentality of Yoopers. Not much seems to faze them and I think that is a fine quality to have.

The fine community of Newberry has had numerous volunteers donating and preparing food for the firefighters. Residents have put up 'thank-you' signs in their yards and most nights as the weary firefighters are returning to their hotel rooms they are greeted by enough clapping and cheering residents that you would think it was a 4th of July parade.

The U.P. is full of the same kind of people that make up the community of Newberry. They are a hard-working group that enjoys the simple pleasures of a slower lifestyle. I think that gives them the time to realize the importance of doing what you can to help others even if your resources don't seem too great. It's amazing what can take place when you band together to get a job done.

One last quote from the article-

Newberry is not a rich community. It is a blue-collar community with heart. You can go for days without seeing a Mercedes, Saab or Volvo roll through. But you can look in any direction and see an American-made truck.

Marquette history museum to feature Yoopers exhibit

Andrew Norton

Coming this April to the Marquette County Historical Museum is an exhibit dedicated to those wonderful souls who call Michigan's Upper Peninsula home and are affectionately referred to as 'Yoopers.' The exhibit will be called "Anatomy of a Yooper." This appears to be a play on the popular novel "An Anatomy of a Murder" written by Marquette resident Robert Traver and also made into a great film starring James Stewart. Robert Traver is the pen name for John Voelker a former Michigan Supreme Court justice. Local residents are being asked to submit stories, photos, or artifacts that help show that 'Yooper' spirit. Directly from the museum's website is this further explanation of what they are looking for:

Unique words and phrases, ethnic customs, coping with the weather, excellent work ethic, unique foods and ways of preparing them, camps and camping, ingenuity with recycling items to make useful things such as Finnish rag rugs and snowshoes, coping with bug season and anything else that makes Yoopers stand apart from the rest.

This sounds like a fun and entertaining exhibit. I wish Marquette wasn't so far away as this is something that will be quite interesting and I would like to see it.

Read the article in The Mining Journal.