Marquette Local Custom Tips by KimberlyAnn Top 5 Page for this destination

People, Geography, and Food

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan (in Yellow) is an area north of what is sometimes called Lower Michigan, Down State, or Under da Bridge (in green) by many people, and is bordered by Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior. Part of this area also borders the state of Wisconsin and looks as though it belongs more to Wisconsin than Michigan. Most Michigan folks simply call the Upper Peninsula the U.P., or sometimes the land above the bridge. Because of this, people who live in the U.P. are called Yoopers (pronounced you pers). Locals don’t mind this term at all, and affectionately call themselves Yoopers, so it is of no insult to use this term. The bridge that both the Yoopers and the lower Michigan folks are referring to is the Mackinac Bridge (pronounced MACK-in-aw), which is a suspension bridge which crosses the Straits of Mackinac to connect the upper and lower parts of Michigan. The Upper Peninsula contains 16,452 square miles (about the size of Denmark), which is almost one-third of the land area of Michigan, but it only contains about 3% of the population.

Traditional food choices in the U.P. (see photos 2 and 3) are the pasty, a kind of individual meat and vegetable turnover originally brought to the region by Cornish miners. Pasties soon became a popular choice among all miners, as it was a complete meal that when well wrapped would still be warm by mealtime. If you try pasties, the best have rutabaga in them. Finnish people brought nisu, a cardamom flavored, and slightly sweet bread to the U.P.

Yoopers are very friendly and hardy. They have to be hardy, as the U.P. has heavy winter snows, which average in the 300 plus inches, and Lake Superior has cold water, so even your summer swims are not for the weak at heart.