Which of the Great Lakes have you swam in?

Now that we know how many of the Great Lakes people have swam in, I would love to know which ones you have and haven’t swam in. Which ones are your favorite for swimming? Where are your favorite places to go swimming along the Great Lakes?

Have a great time swimming in the Great Lakes this summer!

Yooper Steez doesn’t involve itself in politics often, but once in a while the President of the United States decides to come at least within a short drive of the Upper Peninsula.

On Thursday, June 11, President Obama didn’t quite make it to the Upper Peninsula. He made it as far as Green Bay though where he held a Town Hall Meeting. From what I know I believe that President George W. Bush is the only incumbent president to come to the Upper Peninsula since William Taft made it here in 1911. Other presidents have been here, though not during the presidency. President Bush was here campaigning in Marquette on July 13th, 2004. My mom even shook his hand.

Anyways, I’m getting sidetracked.

At this town hall meeting in Green Bay was Matt Stein, a teacher at North Central Area Schools in the U.P. He had the opportunity to ask President Obama a question.

Apparently, as others are saying, this is Obama’s first time learning what a “Yooper” is. If it’s his first time or not, I can’t be sure. Here’s how the conversation went down…

Q My name is Matt Stein. I’m a teacher. I’ve been in education for almost 20 years. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Matt. Where do you teach? Where do you teach?

Q I teach at North Central Area schools in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Outstanding. (Applause.)

Q UP, baby? (Laughter.)

Q UP power, UPers. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Is that what you call yourselves, UPers?

Q Yes. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, that’s cool. (Applause.) All right.

Q Proudly, we call ourselves UPers. (Laughter.)

– Read the entire text at WhiteHouse.gov

My gripe is that the White House needs some better fact checkers. Yes, the term was derived from U.P.-er, I think they could have checked the proper spelling though.

Any thoughts on it yourself?

A special thanks goes out to Doug for sending me info on this! It was also posted on the Journal Sentinel website.

The Upper Peninsula seems to be mystery to much of the U.S. population outside of the Midwest, and even to some of those in the Midwest. It’s quite common to think that the Upper Peninsula is part of Canada and sometimes even textbooks don’t know what state the Upper Peninsula is in. More than anything, most people assume that the Upper Peninsula is part of Wisconsin.

A sample of search engine keywords to Yooper Steez:

It’s a fair question to ask. After all, the Upper Peninsula at no point touches the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Wisconsin is the only section of land shared between the Upper Peninsula, everywhere else is bordered by water.

The Toledo War

During the early 1800s there was a conflict between Michigan and Ohio (and I don’t mean a football rivalry). At the time Ohio had already been admitted into the union while Michigan was still a territory.

The dispute during the Toledo War (also known as the Ohio-Michigan War) began with different interpretations of the geographic boundaries and features between the State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory. Both governments were claiming sovereignty over a 468 square mile region, which became known as the Toledo Strip.

Until the year 1818, the Michigan Territory had ownership over the eastern section of the Upper Peninsula (the yellow region in the graphic above). The territory then expanded to include the rest of the Upper Peninsula, the entire State of Wisconsin and other parts of the Midwest.

Due to a financial crisis the Michigan Territory was under pressure from Congress and President Andrew Jackson, at which point the Michigan Territory accepted a resolution from the government.

173 Years Ago

On June 15, 1836, President Andrew Jackson signed a bill that first recognized Michigan as a state. However, Michigan would have to concede the Toledo Strip to Ohio, but was given the western three quarters of the Upper Peninsula in return (most of which borders Wisconsin along the Menominee River).

At first, Michigan rejected the offer partly out of pride and feeling that the Upper Peninsula was a worthless region. As their financial crisis lingered on they would have been left out of surplus government money if they had remained a territory rather than a state. Michigan accepted the terms in December in Ann Arbor.

When the Toledo War ended it was considered that Ohio had “won”. This belief changed in the 1840s when it was discovered that the Upper Peninsula was a vast region of resources including copper and iron ore. Considered to have produced more mineral wealth than the California Gold Rush, the Upper Peninsula supplied 90% of the United States copper supply by the 1860s and was the largest supplier of iron ore by the 1890s.

Had Michigan won the Toledo War they would have acquire the Toledo Strip, meaning that the Upper Peninsula probably would have become a part of the Wisconsin Territory and later a part of the State of Wisconsin.

Michigan was finally admitted into the Union on January 26, 1837 as the 26th state with the Upper Peninsula included.

……

Quite frankly, I’m pretty stoked that Michigan has the 16,452 square mile paradise of the Upper Peninsula rather than the 468 square mile region of the Toledo Strip. Clearly I’m biased, but I think we clearly got the better deal.

All you history buffs out there let me know if there is more info I should include.

A Higher Quality Yooper Steez Tee

This round of shirts are made in the USA! They are printed on American Apparel’s 2001 t-shirt, and wow are they soft and cozy. Definitely a very comfortable shirt. They are a little longer than the previous versions as well.

Yoopers Across the World

Yooper Steez shirts have now been to 6 of the 7 continents around the world, including over a dozen countries! Antarctica remains, but yes, I do have a plan to get a shirt to Antarctica. However, if you have some awesome connection to get one there as well just let me know.

They have been shipped to almost 40 of the 50 states. I’m really hoping we can knock off those remaining states.

Keep sending your steez photos in! There are lots more to go up, but before I do that I’m working on a better way to display them and a more interactive way to browse the photos, stay tuned for that!

Keep in touch!

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Click for full-size image

Our friend Kennethson posted this photo on Twitpic today.

The photo was taken in downtown Houghton.

Thanks to Drew for letting me know about it via Twitter.

If anyone else has photos they would like to share please let us know. This one was just too good to pass up.

Last year Outdoor Life ranked the City of Marquette as the 7th best town in the United States.

This year Outdoor Life ranked Marquette as their 2nd best town in the United States to experience the great outdoors.

“Another repeat Top-10 finisher from last year, Marquette jumped five spots from number 7 in our 2008 list. Located on the banks of Lake Superior on the Upper Peninsula’s northern shore, Marquette is the ultimate Great Lakes town. Outdoorsmen are blessed with abundant year-round activities, including awesome steelhead and salmon runs; phenomenal smallmouth, walleye and muskie fishing; great grouse gunning; and a whitetail-hunting culture that is second to none. Public access to grouse and woodcock, deer, ducks and turkeys is near at hand on the spacious Hiawatha and Ottawa national forests.”

– OutdoorLife.com

The list compiles data to rank the top 200 towns in the United States for the great outdoors. The magazine ranks the towns based on several factors: population growth, median household income, cost of living, unemployment rate, commute time, amenities, gun laws, public land access, trophy potential, and number of fishable and huntable species.

One of the factors Marquette ranks best in is the short commute. Within minutes you can be in Lake Superior or in the middle of the forest.

Three other Michigan towns made the list:

• #47 - Manistee
• #81 - Petoskey
• #161 - Escanaba

Outdoor Life’s top 10 towns:

1. Lewiston, ID
2. Marquette, MI
3. Idaho Falls, ID (tie)
4. Rawlins, WY (tie)
5. Pocatello, ID
6. Bismarck, ND
7. Sheridan, WY
8. Pierre, SD
9. Rochester, MN
10. Carbondale, CO

For more information check out Outdoor Life magazine. And if you’re from out of town and want to learn more start with the Marquette Visitor Bureau.

I realize that the majority of my readers are not on Twitter, but by this point you have probably heard about Twitter in the news. Or maybe you’ve heard the words Tweeting, Tweetups, Tweeps, and a variety of other variations.

For those of you not on Twitter I suggest giving it a try. It has connected dozens of Yoopers and Yooper transplants as well as doing wonders for Yooper Steez. For those of you who are going to sign up and those already signed up, here is a list of Upper Peninsula and Michigan “tweeps” to follow.

60+ Upper Peninsula Twitter Accounts

If you know of some good additions to the list just leave a comment below.

News & Tourism

Businesses & Schools

Yoopers

I love exploring Google Maps and finding aerial views of my favorite places in the Upper Peninsula as well as the rest of the world. Here are my top findings from the Upper Peninsula. If you would like to add any more just leave a comment. Click the photo to open the map in a new window for a higher resolution image and to explore that area.

Hope you enjoy the post!

The Upper Peninsula

Empire Mine

Isle Royale National Park

The Soo Locks

Ore Freighter

The Mackinac Bridge

I am always amazed and how big, massive and mighty the bridge looks when I drive across it (or even when I stood at the top of the Mackinac Bridge), and then an aerial view makes it look incredibly fragile and could be snapped like a twig.

St. Martin Island

Some people would have a hard time believing this is in the Upper Peninsula. It nearly looks tropical.

Dead River Storage Basin

Picture Rocks National Lake Shore

Lake Gogebic

Port Dolomite

Harbor Island

Maple Island

My best guess is this is a privately owned island and the strip of land is cleared for an airplane landing. Any other guesses?

As difficult as this is to admit I just have to throw it out there, I’m moving to Lansing! I have already garnered a decent amount of heckling, harassment and being called a traitor from various people. Now that I’m announcing it here I expect a lot more of it, and that’s OK, I’m a hockey player and can handle a lot of heckling.

It has been three years since graduating from Michigan State and it’s about time I take on a salary and employer, a difficult task for someone who has done their own thing for three years. This is going to be an incredible opportunity for me and one of those opportunities I can’t pass up. I’ll be working at a marketing agency in Lansing where I will have the role of “the secret weapon” (yes, they hinted that could actually be my job title). I’m excited to help other companies grow, especially businesses in Michigan. I have found a passion for staying in the state and doing my part to help Michigan’s economy prosper. But believe me, I will be representing the Upper Peninsula every chance I get.

And yes, Yooper Steez will continue to do everything it does and more!

For those of you who haven’t read the story behind Yooper Steez you can read the inspiration behind it all. But what I don’t mention enough there is that I grew up in the Upper Peninsula most of my life, at least throughout high school. I grew up in Baraga, a son of two MTU graduates, until I was 18 before heading off to Michigan State University. It wasn’t until moving away from the U.P. that I really began to appreciate it as much as I do now. And each year I spent away the more I came to appreciate the wonders of this place. I’m really happy that I’ve been able to come back to the U.P. and live here for the last 20 months or so.

I can assure you this… my Yooper pride will not falter! In fact, it will probably grow once I start to realize all the things I miss. In addition, all of those trolls are going to have to put up with a lot from me, because the illustration above accurately depicts what I see when I think about Michigan (and when I look at it I think the Lower Peninsula still looks much too large).

An aspect of Yooper Steez I’m working heavily on is creating more partnerships, from Ironwood to Sault Ste. Marie and from Menominee to copper Harbor. Writers, photographers, retailers, you name it. And if YOU are interested contact me today. There are already some great partnerships in the mix, so even though I’ll be far away, I am just one member of a growing team of contributors and supporters.

Now that I’ll be a Yooper lost from home one of the things I’ll be doing is representing the Upper Peninsula to everyone I meet and teaching them great things about this wonderful place.

Things To Teach Trolls

• Educate the trolls on what “northern” Michigan actually means (it does not mean Traverse City!).
• Teach them that pasty is pronounced PASS-TEEE and not PACE-TEEE.
• Educate them about where Marquette is located.
• For the trolls who are especially kind and appreciative of the U.P. I will bring gifts of pasties, sweet rolls, knick knacks from Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, Keweenaw Brewing Company 6-packs (yes, you can even buy it in Lansing), various other things, and of course Yooper Steez shirts.

The biggest advantage is that I will be able to put more financial resources into Yooper Steez to offer more products, more inventory, more features, etc. You can also expect an awesome re-design by mid-summer.

Like I said, I will be doing my best to represent the Upper Peninsula. So if you have any stereotypes you would like me to reinforce or debunk, history lessons to teach, or just sly comments to pass on please let me know in the comments and I’ll make sure it happens!