History of the Upper Peninsula

Michigan's Upper Peninsula is a unique region in the United States. It is surrounded by three Great Lakes (Superior, Huron and Michigan) and the state of Wisconsin. For years although part of the state of Michigan it was physically isolated from the rest of the state by the Straits of Mackinac. Back in 1836 when Michigan was moving toward statehood, the down state people did not want the region attached to the state for a variety of reasons. As a result the Upper Peninsula has grown and developed on its own.

The Anishinabe

The first inhabitants of the area were the Anishinabe people who lived off the harsh land. When the French arrived in the 17th century the Native Americans and Europeans began to interact around the fur trade which made the region a rich economic resource for the French and later the English. The French left in 1763 by the terms of the Treaty of Paris and were replaced by the English. Native American dislike of the English and their social attitudes led to Pontiac’s Rebellion and a positive reevaluation of English attitudes and methods towards the Native People.

During the American Revolution Fort Michilimackinac was the staging post for raids against America's allies the Spanish in St. Louis. In 1780 fearing an American attack on their old fort the British burned Fort Michilimackinac, moved to Mackinac Island in the Upper Peninsula, and built Fort Mackinac. The United States eventually took over the Old Northwest of which the Upper Peninsula was a part in 1797.

Soldier from the War of 1812

Through the first half of the 19th century the Americans continued to interact with the Native Americans around the fur trade. During the War of 1812 Mackinac Island and Sault Ste. Marie were sites of hostilities. John Jacob Astor established the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island. With the decline of the fur trade in the 1830s the Company turned to the fishing industry with the Native Americans as active participants. The American taste was not attracted to salted whitefish and the AFC was left with debt and warehouses full of barrels of fish.

Jesuit Map 1672

During the years prior to the 1840s missionaries ministering to the Native Americans were an important part of the story. Jesuit missionaries came with the French. Not only did they minister to the Native Americans but they were chroniclers of the land and its people who have left their observations and comments in the Jesuit Relations. With the coming of the Americans came Protestant missionaries from New England who established themselves on Mackinac Island and elsewhere. One of the more famous was Reverend Abel Bingham who established a successful Baptist mission at Sault Ste. Marie. Others followed and established Methodist missions north of L’Anse. The Catholics returned in the 1830s with Father Frederick Baraga who became known as the "Snowshoe Priest." Later with the coming of American settlers these missionaries were torn between ministering to the Native Americans or the American settlers.

Jackson Mine

After statehood in 1837, the State of Michigan had the Upper Peninsula surveyed linearly and geologically under the direction of Douglass Houghton and others. In the mid-1840s copper was discovered on the Keweenaw Peninsula and iron ore in the central Upper Peninsula inland west of Marquette. This began "copper fever" which attracted thousands of American and immigrants to the economic opportunities of this mining frontier. The California Gold Rush might be more famous but Michigan ultimately produced more mineral wealth.

Tasson Family


It was iron and copper that brought the first great population boom to the region. The first immigrants to enter the Upper Peninsula were the Cornish with their centuries of mining knowledge followed by the Germans and Irish fleeing famine and political unrest in the Old Country, and French Canadians. In the late 19th century immigrants from Italy, Finland, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Wales and Scotland and even from the Isle of Man and China. These people brought with them their ethnic traditions and foods. In 1917 a writer for the National Geographic Magazine could say that when you left Houghton and traveled to Calumet some ten miles away it was like entering a foreign land. Ethnic churches, newspapers, clubs, shops dominated the community where over 75% of the population was foreign-born. Similar conditions existed throughout the Upper Peninsula. This immigrant tradition has left the region with what folklorist, Richard Dorson called dialectic folklore.

The "Golden Age" of the Upper Peninsula was between 1880 and 1913. Economic opportunity attracted hundreds and then thousands of people. During the summer season ore boats sailed round the clock to get the ore to industrial centers. Today this tradition continues. Jobs could be found in the expanding timber industry where the rich white pine forests were quickly cut and then the hard woods were taken. In 1893 as a tribute to the logging industry, the World's FairLoad was sent to Chicago and viewed by visitors with astonishment. Commercial fishing brought prosperity to many towns along the lakes. Railroads crisscrossed the region and connected the Upper Peninsula with Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis, an overnight trip to the south.