This has probably been answered countless times in this message board, but I’m dying to know, why the hell is the upper peninsula part of michigan instead of wisconsin? I mean I guess I could understand that people got to the upper peninsula through the main one before going through wisconsin, but you’d think later they would go back and redraw the lines. Answer if you so desire.
The only thing a nonconformist hates more than a conformist is another nonconformist who does not conform to the prevailing standards of nonconformity.
A little battle called The Toledo War, fought between Michigainers and Ohians, won by the Ohioans back in the 1800’s sometime. The prize was the black swamp, now Toledo. The US gov felt bad about giving such useless land to Ohio that it gave the UP to Michigan. No blood was shed during the “war.”
I came from Toledo, and if that’s incorrect I was taught wrong by my grade school teachers.
Your Cow God, not just a master of useless information, but a history buff in the making.
“I’m not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.”-- Calvin and Hobbes
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That’s basically it. The UP was a gift to encourage Michigan to stop bitching about Toledo and let Ohio keep it. I’ve been to Toledo. Ohio can keep it.
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
Well, looking at the map, the eastern part of the upper peninsula is so close to Michigan you could probably swim across, so that makes sense.
From what I remember (but hopefully a Michigander would have more details), when Michigan became a state, at the time they were in dispute with Ohio over the region surrounding Toledo, so to make everybody happy, the U.S. gave Toledo to Ohio and gave some extra space (the western part of the upper peninsula) to Michigan. It was easy enough taking land away from Wisconsin since that wasn’t a state yet.
Jacques Kilchoer
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.
All of the answers above are correct; all I want to add is that I would not want to swim the Straits of Mackinaw from the LP to the UP----it’s about a five-mile stretch, through extremely cold water, which is also usually pretty rough, any time of year.
By the by, if anybody has never been to St. Ignace, you really should go—it’s one of the most charming little towns you’ve ever seen. Sault Ste. Marie is nice, too, but a lot bigger. And the Porcupine Mountains and the Tahquamenon Valley are beautiful, too. Nice place, Upper Michigan----I’ve been there many a time. Of course, Lower Michigan is nice, too----it’s where I live.
The UP is covered with fungus. It’s too cold, and it’s ugly as all hell. The lakes are polluted, and the people are inbred & mean. You wouldn’t like it, trust me. Stay away, especially all you trolls.
I heard about it, too. Supposedly they want to form a new state which would be called “Superior.”
Of course, there are also a bunch of neo-Confederates who have formed a Southern Pary with the aim of legally seceeded from the Union. (I think it was a stupid idea the first time around…) No word about whether they want to repeal the 13th, 14th, and 15th Ammendments…
“I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way…”
–Jessica Rabbit,Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Now just wait a minute. I spent a good deal of my childhood and most of my high school years in the UP, and I loved it! Sure the winters were horrible, but the land was beautiful, the real estate cheap, and the people were very friendly and open (if a little naive). If you want to meet some nasty people, try moving to the town in Pennsylvania where I live now…
“Dis rebel group from Sumie,
Dey got a master plan;
Blow up da mighty Mackinaw,
And take a rebel’s stand…”
Tom’s right, Athena. Ever since the mines closed over in Republic, the UP’s main income is from tourism. And while huge hordes of pushy fudgies are irritating, they do bring in some much-needed cash. And they all go home at the end of the season, yay!
Yes, there’s always been a separtist movement up there. They want the UP to become the great state of Superior. Unfortunately, statehood is hard to achieve without an economic base.
Tomndebb, I don’t know WHAT you’re talking about. It’s a wasteland up there, I tell you.
Pickman’s Model, we don’t need no stinkin’ troll cash.
Amberly, it’s all changed since then. It now looks like Gary, Indiana on a bad day.
(heheeeee… lucky me, my plan is to retire in 3 years up in da UP… if everything goes as planned, I won’t need much of a job. I’ll be livin’ in heaven!)
I’m still in Toledo and would like to say that I would gladly give Michigan that frozen wasteland full of UP’ers with their weird Canadian-esque accents for my town.
It may be built on a swamp, have the oddest named minor league baseball team with the Mudhens, have the worst and most biased newspaper with the Blade, and have a nitwit for a mayor, but it still where I went to college, have my friends, work, live, and play.
Any place is what you make of it.
As long as my bottle opener is Y2K compliant, I’ll be okay.
Yah, eh, listen to da Polecat. Da UP ain’t nuthin’ compared to Toleeedo. Holy Wah, they got mudhens, we got snow snakes. psyaa! Next time youse guys wanna go huntin’ go to Ohio and shoot some of those mudhen things. Leave the whitetails to us yoopers.
