The Hidden Culture of
Upper Peninsula Michigan - Part 1 -by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
When
my mother and I would visit our relatives in Wisconsin in fall, she would drive
back over the Upper Peninsula to see the fall colors. I was eager to do the “nature” drive since I
had seen the aurora borealis dancing in the night sky in yellows, blues,
greens, and reds from my grandparents’ house in the “Northwoods” of Wisconsin.
My
grandparents lived in a community of descendants of immigrants from
Switzerland. Breakfast before the Upper
Peninsula tour was half English and half Swiss: eggs and bacon followed by hot
chocolate and has browns that resembled Swiss roesti potatoes with sour cream
on top.
After
breakfast, my mother and I boarded the Thunderbird she drove with an armload of
baked goods and magazines for me. As we
drove down the driveway, my mom turned on classic rock that she played till she
reached the Michigan borders where she began her travel log.
“The
Upper Peninsula of Michigan is attached by land to Wisconsin and not the Lower
Peninsula of Michigan. Politics and
business needs created the borders here,” she said.
“How
did business get involved?” I asked.
“It
all began with the glaciers,” she began rather facetiously.
“Glaciers
covered Michigan. When they began to
melt and retract they left gouges in the Earth that became the Great
Lakes. Water transport is inexpensive
compared to overland transport. There
are iron and copper mines in the Upper Peninsula that industry needs,” my mom responded
as a diligent and knowledgeable person who worked with the advertising
department at The Detroit Free Press newspaper.
“Are
other things transported on the Great Lakes?” I asked trying to use the same
“grown-up” vocabulary she did.
“The Free Press can get newsprint by the
Detroit River and over land,” she said.
My
mother spent time talking with me, because she knew you can usually get your
foot in the door in many industries in sales.
The best salesmen know their territory and their product or service very
well. I was getting a “territory” lesson
on the ride home. Cold, rural places
often have trouble finding employees sometimes.
As
we drove along inside Michigan, signs likes Ishpeming, Marquette, and Mackinac
Island showed up to give some indication about part of the history of the Upper
Peninsula.
There
were several Native American tribes in this area including the Pottawatomie,
Chippewa (Ojibwe), the Sauk, the Foxes, and the Mascoutens. The French came to this frigid area to trap
animals for fur used in the fashion industry and set up trading posts.
The
English always seem to compete with the French, so they soon followed with
trading posts as well. To this day,
Canada, which is nearby, is a bilingual English and French country with the
province of Québec as its main French-speaking province.
End
of Part 1.
To
be continued…
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
