INTO THE WILD
How is increased tourism changing the face of the Upper Peninsula?
Keeping Lake Superior's waters this beautiful is a focus for many organizations in the Upper Peninsula
By Jillian Manning Many of us trolls—yes, we’re owning the term for those who live below the Mighty Mac—think of the Upper Peninsula as an unspoiled wilderness paradise. There is good beer there, we know, and pasties too. The deer may outnumber the humans. We’re a bit wary of visiting during a winter snowstorm, but otherwise we romanticize the upper half of the state as a place of pristine Lake Superior shoreline, friendly neighbors, and starry skies. But the tourism boom of the last 1015 years that left a dramatic mark on northwest Lower Michigan has not left the U.P. untouched. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, for example, has seen visitation increase by 160 percent in the last decade, from just under half a million in 2010 to more than 1.3 million in 2021 alone. For the first time ever, the park is instituting an entrance fee in 2022—$5 per person—to help pay for park improvements, since park funding and staffing haven’t increased at nearly the same rate as visitation. That level of activity has been seen throughout the region, offering various blessings and curses to humans and nature alike. To get a few snapshots of life in the Way Up North, Northern Express connected with individuals and organizations who have seen changes—good and bad—crossing the bridge along with U.P. visitors.
Looking on the Bright Side In many areas, tourism is not just a business booster but a necessary element for a town’s survival and success. Such is the case in Sault Ste. Marie. According to Tony Haller, executive director of the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce, the biggest economic challenge the Soo has faced recently was the closing of the Canada border due to COVID-19 for much of 2020 and 2021. “Now the border is open for our neighbors to come and take advantage of what we have here,” he explains. “Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, has between 70,000 to 80,000 people, and it’s a three-mile walk or drive across our International Bridge. We’re a population here of about 15,000 to 16,000. When you have 80,000 people next door, that’s a good thing for us.” Haller expects 2022 to rebalance the scales, noting that tourism was up even this past winter thanks to good snow for outdoor recreation. As more people discover, visit, and even move to their favorite vacation destinations, development follows. While places like Traverse City have been experiencing growing pains with tall buildings, condo complexes, and corporate headquarters moving in, Sault Ste. Marie has taken a different approach. The city is part of the Michigan Main Street program, offered by the Michigan Economic Development
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Corporation, that “assists communities interested in revitalizing and preserving their traditional commercial district.” Through the program, the Soo has seen over $1.3 million—including grants and private investments—put into facade and building improvements, new businesses, talent recruitment, and community programs. Haller says the improvements have not changed the city’s culture but rather offered a chance for steady, sustainable growth. He feels a better downtown also offers a better experience for tourists, many of whom flock to see the Soo Locks, the area’s biggest attraction. The boat tours that serve the locks had a “really good summer last year,” Haller says, and the campgrounds along the St. Marys River have been filling up quickly. “It’s going to be a busy summer,” he predicts. “And that’s all going to have a longterm impact for us in our community.” Planning for the Summer Season Marquette didn’t face the same challenges with border closures as Sault Ste. Marie did, and the U.P.’s biggest city saw a leap in summer travel after pandemic restrictions were lifted around Memorial Day of 2020. “I say the summer of 2020 was the year of fancy cars and women in high heels, two things you don’t really see here,” says Susan Estler, executive director of Travel Marquette, the city’s destination marketing arm.
Estler says attractions like Presque Isle State Park and Sugarloaf Mountain reported record visitation, and the county even had to build a new parking lot to accommodate increased Sugarloaf traffic. The trend continued in 2021, when the city was heralded as a top spot for safe, outdoorsy vacations by outlets like USA Today and Parade. The downside? Between COVID surges and travel restrictions, a lot of those visitors came all at once, and tourism was concentrated into extra-busy summer seasons. This added stress to local businesses and outdoor attractions, which bore the brunt of visitors in a more compressed timeframe. “Anecdotally speaking, we had people who had never been here before, probably more than we normally do,” Estler says, noting this was especially true in 2020. “But 87 percent of our visitors—based off of a visitor profile that we did in 2018—are repeat visitors, the tried-and-true who have been coming up here for many years.” It’s both these repeat visitors and the U.P. newbies that Travel Marquette hopes to reach with a first-of-its-kind sustainable tourism effort called the Respect Marquette Coalition. They are launching the program in partnership with local stakeholders and Leave No Trace, the national nonprofit dedicated to empowering outdoor enthusiasts to be better stewards of natural spaces.
