Upper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula 'of Michigan—also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. or Yoop'—is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac. It is bounded primarily by Lake Superior to the north, separated from the Canadian province of Ontario at the east end by the St. Marys River, and flanked by Lake Huron and Lake Michigan along much of its south. Although the peninsula as a geographic feature extends into the state of Wisconsin, the state boundary follows the Montreal and Menominee rivers and a line connecting them.
First inhabited by Algonquian-speaking native American tribes, the area was explored by French colonists, then occupied by British forces, before being ceded to the newly established United States in the late 18th century. After being assigned to various territorial jurisdictions, it was granted to the newly formed state of Michigan as part of the settlement of a dispute with Ohio over the city of Toledo. The region's exploitable timber resources and the discovery of iron and copper deposits in the 19th century brought immigrants, especially Finnish, French Canadian, Swedish, Norwegian, Cornish, and Italian; the peninsula includes the only counties in the United States where a plurality of residents claim Finnish ancestry. The area's economy declined in the 20th century when all of the readily available minerals had been removed, and it became largely dependent on logging and tourism.
The Upper Peninsula contains 29% of the land area of Michigan and has 3% of its total population; at the height of the mining and timber era in the early 20th century it had as much as 11% of the state's population. Residents are nicknamed Yoopers and have a strong regional identity, enhanced by the perception that the rest of the state neglects them. Proposals have been made to establish the Upper Peninsula as a separate state but have failed to gain traction. Its largest cities are Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie, Escanaba, Menominee, Houghton, and Iron Mountain. Because of the surrounding waters and northern latitude, it receives more snow than most of the eastern U.S. The heavily forested land, soil types, short growing season, and logistical factors make the Upper Peninsula poorly suited for agriculture. The region is home to a variety of wildlife, including moose, wolves, coyotes, deer, foxes, bears, mountain lions, bobcats, eagles, hawks, and owls.
History
The first known inhabitants of the Upper Peninsula were tribes speaking Algonquian languages, specifically the Algonquian branches of Ojibwe and Menominee. They arrived roughly around 800 C.E. and subsisted chiefly from fishing. Early tribes included the Menominee, Odawa, Ojibwe, Nocquet, and Potawatomi.Étienne Brûlé, an explorer and Catholic missionary working on behalf of the colony of New France under the tutelage of fellow explorer Samuel de Champlain, was the first known European to visit the peninsula. Accompanied by Wendat tribesmen, he is recorded to have sailed the St. Marys River around the year 1620 in search of a route to the Far East. French colonists subsequently laid claim to the land in the 17th century, with other European explorers and missionaries mapping the area and engaging with Indians throughout the century and into the 1700s. The government of New France set about establishing missions and fur trading posts such as Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace, Sault Ste. Marie being the oldest European settlement in Michigan and the site of Native American settlements for centuries, including the contemporary Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians. By 1680, the major Ojibwe communities on the peninsula were in the Sault, L’Anse, and on Grand Island.
Following the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the territory was ceded to Great Britain. American Indian tribes who formerly allied with the French were dissatisfied with the British occupation, which brought new territorial policies. Whereas the French cultivated alliances among the Indians, the British postwar approach was to treat the tribes as conquered peoples. In 1763, tribes united in Pontiac's Rebellion to try to drive the British from the area. American Indians captured Fort Michilimackinac, at present-day Mackinaw City, then the principal fort of the British in the Michilimackinac region, as well as others and killed hundreds of British. In 1764, they began negotiations with the British, resulting in temporary peace and changes in objectionable British policies.
Although the Upper Peninsula nominally became United States territory with the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the British did not give up control until 1797 under terms of the Jay Treaty. As an American territory, the Upper Peninsula was still dominated by the fur trade. John Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island in 1808; however, the industry began to decline in the 1830s as beaver and other game were overhunted.
When the Michigan Territory was first established in 1805, it included only the Lower Peninsula and the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula. In 1819, the territory was expanded to include the remainder of the Upper Peninsula, all of what later became Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. When Michigan applied for statehood in the 1830s, the proposal corresponded to the original territorial boundaries. However, there was an armed conflict known as the Toledo War with the state of Ohio over the location of their mutual border. Meanwhile, the people of Michigan approved a constitution in May 1835 and elected state officials in late autumn 1835. Although the state government was not yet recognized by the United States Congress, the territorial government effectively ceased to exist. President Andrew Jackson's government offered the remainder of the Upper Peninsula to Michigan if it would cede the Toledo Strip to Ohio. A constitutional convention of the state legislature refused, but a second convention, hastily convened by Governor Stevens Thomson Mason, consisting primarily of his supporters, agreed in December 1836 to the deal. In January 1837, the U.S. Congress admitted Michigan as a state of the Union.
File:Quincy-smelter-c1906.jpg|thumb|right|Smelter at Quincy Hill, Hancock, Michigan, circa 1906
At the time, Michigan was considered the losing party in the compromise. The land in the Upper Peninsula was described in a federal report as a "sterile region on the shores of Lake Superior destined by soil and climate to remain forever a wilderness." This belief changed when rich mineral deposits were discovered in the 1840s. The Upper Peninsula's mines produced more mineral wealth than the California Gold Rush, especially after shipping was improved by the opening of the Soo Locks in 1855 and docks in Marquette in 1859. The Upper Peninsula supplied 90% of America's copper by the 1860s. It was the nation's largest supplier of iron ore by the 1890s, and production continued to a peak in the 1920s but sharply declined shortly afterward. The last copper mine closed in 1995, although the majority of mines had closed decades before. Some iron mining continues near Marquette. The Eagle Mine, a nickel-copper mine, opened in 2014.
Thousands of Americans and immigrants moved to the area during the mining boom, prompting the federal government to create Fort Wilkins near Copper Harbor to maintain order. The first wave were the Cornish from Great Britain, with centuries of mining experience; followed by Irish, Germans, and French Canadians. During the 1890s, Finnish immigrants began settling there in large numbers, forming the population plurality in the northwestern portion of the peninsula. In the early 20th century, 75% of the population was foreign-born.
From 1861 to 1865, 90,000 Michigan men fought in the American Civil War, including 1,209 from the Upper Peninsula. Houghton County contributed 460 soldiers, while Marquette County sent 265.
Geography
Including extensive parts of the Great Lakes, the Upper Peninsula contains about of total area. Of that, about is its land area, about 29% of the state. It is bounded on the north by Lake Superior, on the east by St. Marys River, on the south by the Niagara Escarpment, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and on the west by Wisconsin and by Minnesota. It has about of continuous shoreline with the Great Lakes. There are about 4,300 inland lakes, the largest of which is Lake Gogebic, and of streams. Its lowest elevation is along the shoreline of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, averaging above sea level. Its highest elevation is Mount Arvon, at.Michigan's Upper Peninsula is bounded on land by Wisconsin to the southwest and west; and in territorial waters by Minnesota to the west, Ontario to the west, north and east, and the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin extends into Lake Michigan east of the western Upper Peninsula.
Five Michigan Upper Peninsula counties include nearby major islands: Mackinac Island, Round Island and Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron are in Mackinac County; Sugar Island and Neebish Island in the St. Marys River, and Drummond Island in Lake Huron are in Chippewa County; Grand Island is in Alger County; Summer Island is Delta County; and Isle Royale is part of Keweenaw County.The peninsula is divided between the flat, swampy areas in the east, part of the Great Lakes Plain, and the steeper, more rugged western half, called the Superior Upland, part of the Canadian Shield. The rock in the western portion is the result of volcanic eruptions and is estimated to be at least 3.5 billion years old and contains the region's ore resources. Banded-iron formations were deposited 2 billion years ago; this is the Marquette Range Supergroup. A considerable amount of bedrock is visible. Mount Arvon is within the Huron Mountains, located in Marquette and Baraga counties. The Porcupine Mountains are located in the extreme northwest of the peninsula. All of the higher areas are the remnants of ancient peaks, worn down over millions of years by erosion and glaciers.
The Keweenaw Peninsula is the northernmost part of the peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, part of a larger region of the peninsula called the Copper Country. Copper Island is its northernmost section. About one-third of the peninsula is government-owned recreational forest land today, including the Ottawa National Forest and Hiawatha National Forest. Although heavily logged in the 19th century, the majority of the land was forested with mature trees by the 1970s.
There was a boundary dispute over the border with Wisconsin. The northwesternmost portion of the border follows a line from Lac Vieux Desert to the headwaters of the Montreal River. An 1847 survey established the east branch of the Montreal River as the border. However, the 1908 revision of the Constitution of Michigan specified that the west branch of the Montreal River was the proper border, which would have placed an additional 360 square miles of land on the Michigan side of the border. A 1926 Supreme Court decision awarded this tract of land to Wisconsin.