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Letter Re: Michigan's Upper Peninsula as a Retreat Locale
I am new to SurvivalBlog and have found it very interesting. I thought I would
comment on what it’s like living in the Upper Peninsula ("UP") of Michigan.
I built a 1,920 square foot log cabin on 20
acres
here, about
30
years ago. I see that you have recommended the UP as a possible retreat location
for people
in the eastern U.S.
I should give you a little personal background before I get started. I moved
to the UP several decades ago from southern Michigan. Most of my children were
born here and therefore are native Uoopers [or "Yoopers"] (not some
transplant Troll from under The Bridge). That is the Mackinac Bridge, pronounced
Mackinaw
as
if it had a “W” at the end, since the the “C” is silent.
Mackinac is a derivation of a Menomini or Ojibwe {Indian] word "Michilimackinac".
(A little trivia.)
I will tell you some of the good and the bad things living in the UP. Of course
good and bad are both a matter of opinion. I will start with the good things,
as I see them.
Living here in many ways is like living in 1958 instead of 2008. There is crime
and drugs but nothing like the urban or metropolitan areas of the country.
Most crimes are petty in nature. The people here are open and very friendly
to almost every one they meet. Most of the small towns like Munising, Manistique,
or Norway are all most the way they were in 1958, or for that matter in 1938.
You would have to be a native to know that there was any change at all. The
bigger towns like Marquette, Escanaba, Sault Ste. Marie and Iron Mountain have
shopping malls and all those big city things people like. One can live in dense
forests, in farming communities, in small towns (there are no real big cities
in the UP) or just in the country as I do. Or one could even live on an island
like Sugar Island or Drummond Island, perhaps Mackinac
Island [with no motorized vehicles allowed] is more your
taste? It is said that the UP is a sportsman’s paradise. There is fishing
in the Great Lakes, inland lakes and rivers. Wildlife abounds everywhere:
moose,
deer, black bear, wolves, coyotes, and even an occasional mountain lion. Hunting,
fishing and trapping are popular in the UP and I would estimate that 98% of
all adults own at least one firearm and know how to use them. In the winter
months
there is skiing downhill and cross country, snowmobile trails everywhere (used
by ATV riders in the summer), ice fishing, etc. Well you get the idea.
There are wild berries all over the place in the UP. A little anecdote: Back
in the 1980s my wife (at the time) and I were picking raspberries on
the power line right-of-way near where we lived. I was down in a little ravine
and she was up on the top of a hill not far away and we were talking a lot
not paying attention too much. I was eating at least a quarter of every thing
I picked. My truck was parked on top of the hill near her. She told me not
to eat so many berries, that I would get sick. I was ignoring those little
criticisms from her, when I smelled something kind of like a skunk but not
quite that bad. I asked her if she smelled a skunk. She said no, and said “I
told you that you would get sick eating all those berries”. I managed
to ignore that also. I moved over a little for more berries. Now these are
wiled berry bushes on where they cleared all the trees out to put power polls
in and to be able to drive along the line to check for problems. The berry
bushes were densely packed on both sides of the right-of-way just at the tree
line. I started picking the berries near the top of the bush and just then,
a big black head popped up, just on the other side of the bush not more then
6 feet away and looked straight at me. I was told that bears will eat almost
anything they can find, nuts, berries, garbage, garbage cans, gas grills, '73
Ford trucks, you name it. And at that moment I believed every word of it. After
the Black Bear got bored of scaring the stupid Sugar Beeter, he or she (I wasn’t
going to check) turned around and lumbered back into the woods from when’s
it came. I thought I could hear it snickering a little as it disappeared in
the woods. I composed myself, more or less and went up the hill and told my
wife it was time to go home and got in the truck and started it. She got in
and told me “I told you that you would get sick didn’t I?”.
She never believed me about the bear.
The bad things up here: I will start in the spring. Spring starts about the
middle of April at least most of the snow should be gone by then. I can get
into the woods and start cutting fire wood. Some time in May the Ticks are
out. In June the Mosquito’s and Black Flies and all the other vampire
bugs are out. I’m still cutting fire wood. It can start to snow any time
after the middle of October but if it snows it normally will not stick. Also
starting in October the flies start to congregate on the west side of the cabin
sunning themselves and looking for a snug place to get out of the cold. It’s
amazing how many of the little annoying things can find there way into my cabin.
Some time in November the snow is here for the winter. It depends where one
lives in the UP as to how much snow they get a year. About 250 inches give
or take each winter (yes that’s over 20 feet of snow). Now the snow does
not get that deep on the ground. Where I live it get’s about 3 feet to
4 feet deep, depending on the winter. That is because of compaction and melting
from the ground. If you live near Lake Superior more than that. However if
you live down in the banana belt along Lake Michigan, it is less than that.
It gets very cold in the winter, I’ve seen it get -25 below 0 with highs
at -9 or -10 below zero degrees Fahrenheit. and stay their for weeks on end.
The UP is the only place
I’ve been where you can have a blizzard when there is not a cloud in
the sky. That is "lake effect" snow. Lake Superior doesn’t
freeze over completely. With a little breeze out of the north, the very cold
dry
air picks
up moisture
off
the big lake and dumps it on the cold land. The stretch on M-28 between Marquette
and Munising gets closed sometimes because of the snow off the big lake. Now
combine "lake effect" snow and a true blizzard out of Canada, well
I hope you have all your firewood in and the pantry is full.
I have seen lots of people come up here thinking they could move a trailer
on to an acre or two and live off the land by hunting. It just doesn’t
work, along about January or February the snow gets so heavy the roof caves
in on them, some fun. In the winter the snow gets too deep for the deer to
forage so they yard up in the cedar swamps in big herds. Wolves and coyotes
stalk
the cedar swamps for there livelihood.
The growing season is short, that’s not to say you can’t have a
nice garden, you can but it’s a lot of work. Cutting firewood for the
six months of winter heating is hard work. More than the average neophyte (Sugar
Beeter) can put up with. This is a hard place to live. The people that live
here have the knowledge and skills needed to survive in this unique part of
the United States. A person or family doesn’t just come up here and camp
out in the woods and live off the land. If the insects don’t drive them
out of there minds, the white death of winter will kill them. I mean that literally,
winter is a white death for the unprepared. That is why a meltdown in the big
cities is not going to affect the UP with droves of refugees. And everybody
in the cities of Wisconsin and Michigan knows that, they're going to head south where
the living is easy.
But if you think you're tuff enough, good luck up here. - The Old Uooper
JWR Adds: One of our advertisers
is Richard Hendricksen. He
is a real estate agent that acts as a Buyer's Agent. He specializes in finding
U.P. properties
that are suitable for retreats. He knows the region very well and can give
advice
on everything from microclimates and wild game migration patterns to local
politics. I encourage
any readers
that
are
considering
the
U.P.
to contact Mr. Hendricksen
