It’s always bugged me: Many states’ boundaries are formed by natural barriers, such as bodies of water, but there exceptions for political reasons. So, what’s the history of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula? Looking at natural boundaries, it simply looks like it should belong to Wisconsin. So, whazz “Up”, in MI, WI? Just curious.
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
It goes back to a dispute between Michigan and Ohio over who got the city of Toledo. Why anyone would fight over Toledo is beyond me :p. Anyways, someone (Andrew Jackson? Andrew Johnson?) worked out a compromise, where Ohio got Toledo, but Michigan was given the Upper Peninsula instead. Wisconsin probably bitched about that, but it was only a territory back then, so Congress didn’t need their permission to carve it up.
–It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.
i don’t know if there’s any reason behind it other than what causes boundaries any other time, namely, that’s what was claimed, or occupied by a certain people at a certain time. i don’t know specifics, but, i’m going to ask you this: why doesn’t the lower peninsula belong to indiana or ohio? why doesn’t baja california belong to california? why doesn’t alaska belong to canada? it’s like that, and that’s the way it is.
Ubermensch, were you the brainpower behind the “Bud Dry” commercials: “Why ask why?” I’m asking about an appreciable discontinuity of land mass here. I don’t think you catch the essence of my question. Did your karma run over our dogma this morning? 
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
Here’s a link to a story about The Toledo War which explains the entire situation quite clearly and concisely.
Here’s mud in yer eye!
Yer pal, UncleBeer.
I live about 50 miles south of the U.P. in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. “Yoopers” are a different breed. Once you start heading west in the Upper Peninsula, you’ll stop seeing Detroit Lions memorabilia in a big ol’ hurry. They’re all Packer-backers.
I get the sense many in the U.P. don’t feel a real strong connection to the rest of Michigan, and would love to form their own state.
Will the nation’s 51st state be Superior, with its capital in Marquette? Doubt it. They would be a VERY sparsely populated state, and would have to tax their residents impossibly to be self-sustaining. Michigan would be dumb to want to give up the mining and timber resources up there, anyway.
The U.P. is a very beautiful place, but, like where I live, its days are probably numbered as the tourists move in and ruin the place.
“You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment.” - Bill Hicks
More specifically, why is the boundary where it is? Well, the southeastern half of it actually determined by a geographic feature, namely, the Menominee River. Then heading Northwest, there two straight line segments, one from about Nelma, WI to the center of Lac Vieux Desert (it’s a lake) and from there it meets another river, the Bad River near Sandrock, WI. The boundary follows the Bad River approximately north to Lake Superior near the Bad River Indian Reservation.
So, to summarize, the greater portion of the state boundary does actually follow geographic features. I have no idea how they chose these rivers or the two srtraight line segments though.
What is most clear to me, from reading UncleBeer’s link, is that Ohio used its electoral college votes to bribe politicians into giving it Toledo, which by right should have gone to Michigan.
Is there a movement in Michigan to have Toledo returned to the motherland? If not, maybe someone should start one. I’ll send in a $5.00 donation.
I’ll send $5.00 to keep it out. Actually, I’ll throw in Detroit too, just to make it even!
Milossarian’s pretty much got it right, especially the part about the yoopers not feeling much like they belong to the rest of Michigan. It’s sorta hard to feel like you belong to a state when the area you live in gets very little state funding, and the largest newspapers often publish maps of the state that simply leave out the UP.
I don’t think the bulk of the residents of the UP want to form their own state, though. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize that there’s no way in hell the UP could support itself. The economy up there is harsh to say the least. That’s the #1 reason I left in my early 20’s - I wanted a chance at a real job.
If anything, I’d say most people in the UP would vote to be part of Wisconsin if they could. Packers, beer, cheese curds… the yoopers and the cheeseheads all seem to get along just fine.
As far as the tourists ruining the place, I sort of doubt it. 40 below keeps out the riffraff, y’know? 40 below and no possibility of getting a job keeps 'em out even more. Marquette is rated #5 on the “snowiest cities of the US” ratings, beating out many Alaskan cities. And just in case you’re still thinking of going up there, the natives bite, the weather sucks, and it’s butt ugly, so go to Florida or California instead.
hey now, my father’s side of the family comes exclusively from the very eastern tip of the UP. it’s beautiful up there. and how many tourists go there in winter? we spent christmas up there once, and got around 5 foot of snow. summer is tourist season, and there’s plenty up there. most of the villages there survive on tourist dollars. why go to california or florida when you get 70, maybe 80 degree weather tops in the summer? and look at all the lakes to swim in! i spent many a summer up there swimming in the great lakes and i have fond memories of it all. so go to hell, eh? (sorry if this turns it into a pit topic.)
I’ll second that. I was up in Sault St. Marie once. It was a day trip while we spending two weeks in Gaylord. Yes, we went on the boat trip that went through the Soo Locks. Everyone who visits the UP should do that[/shameless plug]
–It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.
Hate to break it to ya, but the tourist migration is already under way up there. A lot of snowmobilers consider it heaven, and if you can handle the mosquitos that can eat small dogs, the scenic beauty in the other seasons is unmatched.
Many of the folks where I live, disillusioned about how their small towns went from folksy, everybody-knows-everybody places to toney resort communities that a common man can’t even afford to live in now, have migrated to the U.P., the Final Frontier.
I’d say they have about 5 more years before it’s overrun there, too.
“You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment.” - Bill Hicks
Sheesh, you people! I guess I forgot to turn on the [irony] flags.
I was born and bred in the UP, as was my mother, my father, my grandparents on both sides, several of my great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles… you get the picture. Anyway, as I’m planning on moving back up there in a couple years, I’m actively discouraging anyone from moving up there. I don’t want it ruined any more than anyone else.
A little more tourism, IMO, would do the UP some good. For all everybody’s saying that it’s getting ruined already, I say c’mon… my hometown (Marquette) still has nothing like a good restaurant, and the first upscale hotel just went in a couple years ago. The jury is still out on whether or not it will stay in business. Yeah, there’s a lot of snowmobilers in the winter, but pretty much all they’ve done is keep Munising and other such cities from falling into the lake.
I still say that the winters are much too harsh for your average tourist looking for a nice place to retire. And the summers are a little too mosquito-y, if not downright too cold. 5 more years before it’s overrun? No way. Remember, there’s still only about 20 miles of interstate in the whole UP. It’s gonna take more than 5 years to ruin it.
Georgia native here. I visited the UP with some friends a couple of years back and really loved it. The scenery is beautiful, great fishing, etc., etc…(and the pasties, by the way, are yummy)
So anyway, what with so many Northerners moving down here these days (can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Michigander), I am discussing with my friends the idea that Southerners ought to move up to Michigan en masse. (Hey turnabout’s fair play!)
We figure with global warming and all, the UP will soon be pleasant even in the winter. Meanwhile, all the Michigan folks who moved South will be baking in the greenhouse effect heat! (Mwahhh hah hah hah!) So get ready Michigan, here we come!!!
Many of them are Twins fans, too. This is probably due to geographic proximity: most sports fans along the LP’s Lake Michigan shore from Ludington down follow the Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and/or Black Hawks.
I-75 from St. Ignace to Sault Ste. Marie is about 45 miles long. Two small sections of U.S. 41, west of Marquette and from Masonville to Escanaba, are 4-lane divided.
That already happened, for about 20 to 25 years following the end of WWII: people migrated from all parts of the South to Michigan because it was easy to find a decent-paying job in the auto factories and their support industries (railroads, shipping, steel, parts plants, warehouses, etc.) The state’s economic turmoil following the 1973-74 oil shortages reversed that trend.
If you want to move to Michigan, it’s a nice place to live during a healthy economy. Dress warm.
“A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back, he ever wants to see a cross?” – Bill Hicks
John Rush wrote:
I know. My Dad was one of them. (He worked in Michigan for a while during and after the War.) Sometimes he would get homesick and cook up a pan of cornbread. Says the folks in the neighborhood (northerners) wanted to know what kind of “cake” that was he was making. Oh well. I’m sure he was just as confused by the whole “pastie” phenomenon. Lord knows what y’all would think of Brunswick stew…
OK fellow Southerners: Wagons ho!!!
OK, there’s 45 miles of interstate (I75) in the UP, not 20. Last I looked, US41 was not an interstate, though. I’m still not too worried about too many tourists deciding to relocate to the UP.
I can’t believe I read a post suggesting Michigan would WANT Toledo! :eek:
And just to clear up one mis-conception that is popular; Ohio never would have gotten the UP, so they didn’t loose anything. Toledo WAS important; it was the main port on the west end of Lake Erie, and was connected by a series of canals to the Ohio River.
As for the NE Wisconsin border, one would have to know if the territory of Wisconsin was already constituted at the time the UP was handed to Michigan. If so, then the border is where it is because that is what Wisconsin wanted and the feds were willing to give. 