Superior: The Yooper State
Yooper (n.): residents in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, derived from "U.P.-ers"
If Michigan’s Upper Peninsula were its own state…
Total Population: 301,000 residents (213,000 registered voters)
Prospective State Capital: Marquette, SP
Major Universities: Michigan Technological University, Northern Michigan University, Finlandia University
Notable Monuments/Attractions: Mackinac Bridge, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Number of House Seats: Superior - 1 / Michigan - 13 (no net loss due to population)
Statehood History
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has a long history of shifting borders. When Michigan Territory was first established in 1805, it primarily included the Lower Peninsula and only included the eastern most tip of the Upper Peninsula. Meanwhile, the westernmost reaches of the U.P. were denoted as Indiana Territory at about the same time in history. (This led to an awkward period where the middle areas of the Upper Peninsula were unorganized, falling into neither Michigan nor Indiana Territories.) It wasn’t until the late 1830s that the Upper Peninsula was firmly controlled by Michigan.
Michigan’s admission into the Union in 1837 was the result of a conflict with Ohio known as the Toledo War. In the early 1800s, a border dispute arose over the Michigan-Ohio border as conflicting pieces of legislation placed the border at different latitudes. This became consequential due to the presence of Toledo which was originally established as a Michigan Territory settlement. The “almost bloodless” war was ended with a compromise initiated by Congress: Michigan Territory would cede Toledo to Ohio with a new agreed upon border, in exchange Michigan would be given statehood and control over the Upper Peninsula. (No, the U.P. wasn’t involved in any part of the Toledo War, nor did Ohio ever claim jurisdiction. The land transfer was just a way to throw a bone to Michigan.)
Michiganders were not pleased with this deal. At the time, the Upper Peninsula was viewed as a relatively worthless stretch of land due to its remoteness and harsh climate. Michigan delegates held a convention to discuss the terms, rejected the deal and eventually acquiesced during a second convention held months later.
Movements to separate the Upper Peninsula from Michigan reverberate throughout the state’s early history. In as early as 1858, a convention was held to combine the Upper Peninsula, several counties in northern Wisconsin, and a few stray counties in Minnesota, to be admitted into the union as the state of Superior. (The name Ontonagon was also considered, modeled after the city where the convention was held.) Several other initiatives were mounted throughout the late 1800s and 1900s as Upper Peninsula residents felt culturally and politically separated from the rest of the state. This was because that separation was also literal: the Upper Peninsula is separated from Michigan’s Lower Peninsula by roughly 5 miles of water at the narrowest crossing. Sailing was the only way Michiganders could navigate between the two landmasses for over 100 years of Michigan statehood and this crossing was often unnavigable during the winter months.
The construction of the Mackinac Bridge and its opening in 1957 was truly a momentous occasion for the state. It stands as the only road linking Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. It was also a globally celebrated engineering feat: it remains the longest suspension bridge between two anchorages in the Western Hemisphere. Grumbles of secession began to subside in the wake of the construction of the Mackinac Bridge. In 1962, the Upper Peninsula Independence Association was formed and collected signatures to place secession on the ballot for a voter referendum. Ultimately, they failed to garner enough support to push the effort through, barely collecting half of the required signatures.
Superior Today
Today, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is still sparsely populated and primarily relies on a mixture of mining and tourism to power its economy. If admitted to the US today as a state, Superior would be somewhat competitive politically, leaning slightly toward the Republican party.
The congressional district covering the Upper Peninsula (MI-1) was represented by a Democrat (Rep. Bart Stupak) for 18 years in the House and voted for Pres. Barack Obama in 2008. The region just recently flipped back toward Republicans as it supported Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020. However, in 2016 six percent of Upper Peninsula voters selected a third-party candidate for president. Despite it being a heavily rural area, Trump never captured more than 60% of all U.P. voters (in similarly rural areas Trump typically averages closer to 70-80% of support). He also lost the region’s most populous county, Marquette, in both elections. While voters in the Upper Peninsula do lean conservative, they also have a clear individualistic approach to politics and are not as easily swayed by nationalized narratives as other rural regions of the United States.