THE UP

Karl Bjork immigrated to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from Sweden in 1879 and became an iron ore miner, laboring with pick and shovel in dark underground tunnels. His son later worked in the mines, as did his grandson. Now, great-grandson Carl Bjork is continuing the family tradition but aboveground, as a mechanic at the Empire Mine machine shop. He uses neither pick not shovel, but would be lost without his laptop computer.
    Rooted in the past yet changing with the times, the Bjorks and the mining industry illustrate the paradox that is the Upper Peninsula at the dawn of the new millennium-an uncommon blend of old and new, continuity and change, backwoods and high tech.
    The UP has always been something of a world unto itself. Added to Michigan 162 years ago as a political bargaining chip, it has maintained a separateness of mind-set and culture as well as geography. Its long, harsh winters, sparse population and distance from political power centers have produced a self-reliant toughness and fondness for the familiar. "We always seem to be a couple of years behind the rest of the nation," says Jimmy DeCaire, leader of Da Yoopers, a musical comedy troupe that pokes good-natured fun at life above the Mackinac Bridge.
    Yet the peninsula is not an island, and the cultural, technological and demographic changes of the 20^th century have left their mark. It’s a place where a Houghton County trapper named Bruce "Buckshot" Hemming lives off the land in a log cabin, yet sells his fur products via the Internet. A place where some communities don’t have a family doctor, yet the largest hospital Marquette General, is so technologically advanced it was recognized this year as among the nation’s 100 "most wired" hospitals. A sprawling, mostly rural landscape where logging and mining remain key arts of the economy, yet the fastest growing employer is a network of Las Vegas-style casinos run by American Indians whose ancestors sustained themselves by hunting, fishing and gathering. A richly diverse melting pot, yet one where some ethnic minorities-particularly Indians and descendants of Finnish immigrants-struggle to preserve their cultural uniqueness.

This material has been compiled for educational use only, and may not be reproduced without permission.  One copy may be printed for personal use.  Please contact Randall Schaetzl (soils@msu.edu) for more information or permissions.