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LONG WEEKEND: Up In Michigan

Trekking through history in the Upper Peninsula, one day at a time.

by Fara Warner

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—the U.P., to almost everyone—extends from the Canadian border in the east to Wisconsin in the west. To the south lies the long oval bowl of Lake Michigan. Lake Superior, the deepest of the Great Lakes, pummels the peninsula’s rocky coast from the north.

This sparsely populated stretch of land was originally home of the Ojibwa peoples and later explored by Catholic missionaries. Its natural resources—iron-ore deposits, copper and almost endless stretches of forest—helped fuel America’s industrial revolution. Yet it is a place of pristine beauty. A four-day trip takes in a historical park, a national lakeshore and Isle Royale, one of the most remote and stirring national parks.

Day One

Keweenaw National Historical Park

Morning: Stop in Marquette, a small hillside city above Lake Superior named for Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest who explored the country during the 1600s, to buy a “pasty” for lunch during the two-hour ride to the Keweenaw Peninsula. Traditionally steak (or other readily available meat) and rutabaga wrapped in pastry made with lard—but today available in many variations, including vegetarian—the pasty was brought to the peninsula by Cornish miners. Jean Kay’s, on Presque Isle Avenue, has some of the best. Leaving town on Highway 41, you’ll share the road with logging trucks for the first hour before turning north to hug the shore of Lake Superior’s Keweenaw Bay and pass through the old copper towns of Hancock and Houghton.

Afternoon: After Hancock, look for signs for the Quincy & Hoist Mine, in Keweenaw National Historical Park. In operation for almost 100 years, the mine boasts the world’s largest steam hoist, which took miners down shafts as deep as two miles and carried ore to the surface. Consider a guided tour of the mine shaft, and don’t miss the massive hoist house, an architectural marvel with walls of Italian tile.

Evening: Wander Fifth and Sixth Streets in Calumet to get a feel for this former copper boomtown, once home to millionaires. The elegant Calumet Theatre still hosts plays, musicals and movies. Stop for a pint of locally brewed oatmeal stout at Michigan House Brewery, where George Gipp (of “win one for the Gipper” fame) worked before he went to Notre Dame. Then head to nearby Laurium and the Laurium Manor Inn, in the former mansion of Thomas Hoatson, a mine manager.

Day Two

Isle Royale National Park

Morning: Head north and get your lake legs for what could be a stomach-churning 50-mile, 4½-hour ferry ride to Isle Royale National Park. Boats leave at 8:25 a.m. from Copper Harbor, April through October. Ferocious storms make the lake impassable in winter, one reason Isle Royale closes. But the lake’s cold waters help maintain a variety of shipwrecks popular with scuba divers. Allow time for breakfast at the Pines, a small diner near the ferry landing.

Afternoon: The unspoiled ecosystem of Isle Royale (no motor vehicles allowed) lets you imagine the U.P. before white settlers arrived. Once you’ve checked into your room at Rock Harbor Lodge, take a ranger-led tour.

Evening: Follow the boardwalk through a spruce bog to Raspberry Island, then board the MV Sandy for an evening cruise around Scoville and Blake Points. Because mining magnates wanted to operate in the same time zone as the New York Stock Exchange, Isle Royale is on eastern time—though it’s due north of Chicago, in the central zone—so sunset arrives late. As the sky deepens to indigo, watch for the northern lights, unobscured by artificial light.

Day Three

Morning: Rent a canoe and paddle southwest toward Moskey Basin. You can see the Rock Harbor Lighthouse and pull in at Daisy Farm for a quick hike into the island’s interior. Keep your eyes open for moose and wolves. All 30 of the wolves on Isle Royale are descended from one pregnant female who crossed on an ice sheet in the 1950s. Return to Rock Harbor for a 2:45 p.m. departure to Copper Harbor.

Evening: On your way back to Marquette, stay overnight in Big Bay in a working lighthouse. (Film and history buffs may remember Big Bay as the location for the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder.) Have dinner in Thunder Bay’s wood-paneled dining room; if whitefish is on the menu you’ll know it was caught fresh that day in the waters of Lake Superior.

Day Four

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Morning: After breakfast, visit the lighthouse for a great view of Lake Superior. Then hike past the brick signal house to the lakeshore.

Afternoon: Going east toward Munising and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, the park system’s first designated lakeshore, stop for a walk to Munising Falls, an oddly delicate torrent that drops from a limestone cliff into a round, blue pool. In the park look for parking for Miner’s Castle Overlook. The best view of the park’s signature cliffs, which appear to be painted by sunlight, is from the water—boat rides are available from Munising Pier—but from up here, looking down on the crenellated outcroppings gives you a sense of the grandeur of this lakeshore that stretches another 40 miles northeast to the town of Grand Marais.

Evening: Back in Marquette, stop by Thill’s Fish House. Proprietors Ron and Ted Thill fish the waters of Lake Superior year-round and will gladly pack whitefish and lake trout on ice for your trip home.