There's only 300,000 people on the whole UP. It seems like you could drive for miles and miles and not see anything but nature. (This coming from a New Yorker.) Is it really that empty?
Hey, UPers, tell us what it's like!
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
I was laughing after reading your question & my wife walked over to see what was so funny & started laughing too. We were shocked that there was that MANY people in the UP. Miles & miles is quite an exaggeration but it can seem quite desolate when off of the main roads.
Now if you really want to see empty go to eastern Montana. Average population density there is 2-4 people per square mile compared with about 18 per in the UP (Brooklyn has about 35,000 per square mile for comparison....) Where I am now (NKY)is considered relatively rural for the area & is about 600 per so I guess it is all in how you look at it.
See, Montana, ND, SD, Wyoming - that doesn't really shock me that places like that are empty. They're out in the middle of nowhere. But the UP is right in the middle of everything! Wisconsin and Minnesota are very populated states, and the rest of Michigan is very populated as well. It's kinda weird to have the UP so sparse right in the middle of everything.
So, what is it like living on the UP? Do you feel isolated? Is there stuff to do? Other than fishing, that is.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
An analogy to the UP might be upstate New York, especially the north end containing Adirondack Park. There are people along the main roads in this area (I-81, I-87) but very few in between. The UP has about the same density as adjacent northern Wisconsin. The northern half of the lower peninsula of Michigan is also sparsely populated (no large cities above Saginaw/Midland/Bay City). Just north of the UP, Northern Ontario is EXTREMELY sparsely populated. The main road from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay (not the Thunder Bay in the movie) was only built about 1960.
Truth be told, most of the country is sparsely populated. Your questions tell us more about your not being well-traveled than it does about the UP. By contrast, here is where I've been: http://www.mob-rule.com/counties/user-gifs/thill.gif
I've never lived in the UP, but I've lived in an even more sparsely populated area (NW Minnesota). In our town of 2000 people, there was always a lot to do. We kids enjoyed biking, swimming, bowling, our city parks with excellent baseball and tennis facilities, and the library. There were about a half dozen eateries and stores that provided almost all of our needs. 30 miles away, we had a city of 50,000 (Grand Forks, N.D.) that had most urban amenities, including fast food and enclosed shopping centers. When that was not suitable, Fargo, N.D. (100 miles away) and Winnipeg, Man. (120 miles away) had just about everything. A weekend trip to Winnipeg could satisfy a need for major museums and fancy dining. For longer trips or if you needed big-league sports, Minneapolis was 320 miles.
Why not get out and see more of the country? 278 million Americans don't live in metro New York.
I admit that I have a skewed view of the "rest of the country." It comes from growing up on Long Island, a little strip of land that is packed with about 7 million people. When I grew up, the towns were literally right on top of each other. There was no break in between the towns - one ended and the next town started immediately. The only way you'd know was from the little green and white sign announcing that you'd crossed the line into another town. Really, it was that "crowded." And I extrapolated from that that this is how the rest of the world was.
Of course, I know I'm wrong. I just can't make the mental switch. So I have carried the experience of my entire childhood into adulthood. I find it bizarre that there are vast stretches of "emptiness" in between towns. Rationally, I know this must be so, but it is still alien to me. Can't get used to the idea.
Also, because I grew up on an island, I also can't get used to the fact that everywhere else, at night, the temperature drops by 30 or 40 degrees from the daytime temperature. Where I grew up - and where I still live now, it drops only about 20 degrees, so you don't need another layer to wear. So, when we go camping - in upstate New York, natch - I always have to remember to put on a jacket when the sun goes down, or else freeze and have to figure out why.
In answer to your throwing down the gantlet, I have seen the country. 20 years ago, I was part of a crew who was servicing a team of bicycle riders riding across the country, from Los Angeles to Charleston. It took a week, going at 20 mph the entire time. So I REALLY saw the country, up close, and slow. An amazing experience I'll never forget.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
The UP has been steadily losing population for over a decade now. With all the restrictions being placed on logging and the lumber industry, and virtully no more mining being done up there, there's no work to be found. The last industry left is tourism, which has been severly curtailed due to the recession and the cost of fuel. Plus it's only a seasonal industry to begin with. The unofficial joke in the UP is "last one out shut off the lights."
A heart can be broken, but it still keeps a-beatin' just the same.
Born and raised in the U.P.
And it's Yoopers...not UPers, just an FYI.
I see it's been a few months since your post, so maybe you have looked up info but there is lots to do in the U.P.
Plus, basing what you think of the U.P. off what you see in a 1959 movie doesn't help much either! LOL
Marquette (where AOAM) is the biggest city of about 20,000 along with a 4-year college that has about 9-10,000 students every year.
There are awesome places to eat, great parks, lots of beaches and each season means a different sport. In the fall: hockey practice; in the winter: hockey season; in the spring: hockey playoffs; and in the summer: well, we have softball, fishing, basketball...etc. It's not a foreign land, the same as anywhere in America.
The U.P. has a lot of museums, casinos, theaters along with the National Ski Hall of Fame.
I could go on and on...but I think you get the drift. Make sure to try a pasty if you ever get up there. It's about a 7 hour drive from Detroit and 3 hours from Green Bay, Wisc.
And what's wrong with having just nature around anyway? :) Empty space doesn't mean desolate. There are plenty of animals to see (and hit..lots of road kill!).
But didn't you think the geographical references in the movie made it sound like this was actually set in the northern half of the lower peninsula?
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The UP is pretty much an extension of WI. And WI has four areas of population - Milwaukee on South to the IL border/Chicago (Racine/Kenosha), Madison (the Capitol) on South toward Janesville/Beloit, La Crosse-Eau Claire corridor due to being by the Twin Cities in MN, and the Fox River Valley area. Otherwise it's sparse - the Southwest, the center of the State, pretty much all the North up by Canada, and the UP. And as for MN, outside the Twin Cities it's pretty sparse. It makes sense the UP is sparse.
Some people are afraid of the unknown. I don't know why, and it scares me.
spots in the UP in 2003. It is quite empty in many places. A very special part of the world.
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. Samuel Beckett
There is the infamous Seney stretch, When I was a kid my parents always made sure the gas tank was full before making the trip of course we had an old Ford wagon that got about seventeen miles to the gallon. A few years ago I made the same trip in a Ford Focus, that gets about thirty five miles to the gallon but I still filled up the tank to be safe. It is a good idea to take some food along to.
It is important to remember "The Stretch" is miles of empty pavement, trees and, from time to time, deer and other critters who haven't entered cars into the survival instincts and are likely to jump into the road and stop.
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.