Day Fourteen - What’s a “Yooper”?

As we travelled through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan we heard people referring to Yoopers (pronounced you-per). After wondering about it for a bit, we finally asked someone.

Their response was, “People from the U.P.”

Well, that didn’t help us. So, we asked, “What is the U.P.?”


Then we learned that the term referred to people who live in the upper Michigan peninsula. You know, it’s that awkward piece of land jutting into Lake Superior that sits o n top of Wisconsin, along with the upper portion of the Michigan peninsula.

The term Yooper is even in the Websters dictionary and it came about from the use of “U.P. ers”.

These folks are known for their independence, sense of humor, and friendliness. And, they know how to deal with snow. The upper Michigan peninsula averages about 200 inches of snow each year! Also, Yoopers often refer to people who live on the lower peninsula as “trolls”. That jokingly refers to people who live “below” the Mackinac Bridge which separates the two peninsulas.

Another discovery we had when we looked into this “Yooper” thing, is that there are some rocks that glow when exposed to UV light! And, they are only found in the Great Lakes area, primarily on the shores of the U.P. The way to find these rocks is to go out at night with a UV light and shine it on the rocks to see if they glow.

You may be saying to yourself this sounds like a “Snipe hunt”...  well, we thought that too, but if you look it up, you can buy yooperlites just for finding your glowing rocks.

This trip a large thunderstorm covered most of the U.P., so we changed our direction of travel. However, now that we’ve heard about Yoopers, we have it on our list of places to check out in the future! I'll have to bring my yooperlite with me the next time we head to the midwest.



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