This week across the Upper Peninsula it was rare to see a temperature below freezing. A lot of snow and ice melted this week and once again the ice fishing season will be coming to a close soon.
There aren’t many places in the United States where you’re driving along and see a frozen lake that’s full of ice shanties. It’s a rare thing that Yoopers take for granted a few months out of the year. It seems to be a favorite site among tourists and locals alike, to see the small villages of ice shanties.
Anyone who has ever driven on US-2 five miles west of St. Ignace has seen the famous Mystery Spotsign. There’s no missing it, and there’s no missing which direction to go to find the Mystery Spot.
According to their website the story of the Mystery Spot goes as follows:
In the early 1950’s, 3 surveyors named Clarence, Fred and McCray came from California to explore the Upper Peninsula. They stumbled across an area of land where their surveying equipment didn’t seem to work properly. For instance, no matter how many times they tried to level their tripod, through the use of a plum-bob or level, the plum-bob would always be drawn far to the east, even as the level was reading level. As they continued their research of this land, they noticed a constant feeling of being light-headed. Later, realizing their queasiness and problems with the surveying equipment only occurred in an area about 300 feet in diameter, they felt they had discovered a “Mystery Spot”.
Today we’re starting a new poll… A few months back we asked our readers “What is your favorite month to be in the Upper Peninsula?” The answer was clearly July, with nearly a quarter of all the votes.
It is officially July 1st! The favorite month of our readers. You have made it through a long winter once again and without question July is starting off as a beautiful month as we head into the 4th of July festivities.
28.4% of votes selected February as their least favorite month in the Upper Peninsula.
No explanation is needed here. We can all safely assume it has to do with being in the middle of a long winter with lots of snow. It probably has nothing to do with being the shortest month of the year or Valentine’s Day.
An impressive 75.3% of voters picked either January, February, March or April for their least favorite month. There appears to be just no love for winter.
It was about -14 degrees with the windchill those two winter days. Since that chilly week it has warmed up across the Upper Peninsula in the last two weeks.
The topic seemed to have hit a chord with a number of people. Feel free to read all the comments or post one yourself.
I’m impressed, 33% of Yooper Steez readers say they have done a polar bear plunge. I would love to hear some stories. So if you’ve taken the polar plunge please leave a comment sharing your experience. Did you lose a bet? Did you go into shock? Would you do it again? Do you do it every year? Was it a fundraiser for a great cause?
And if you plan on doing one next winter, be sure to make sure there’s a hole in the ice first…
I left it off the graph, but there were two people who said they have never swam in any of the Great Lakes. If you know anyone who never has, you need to make sure that they swim in one of the Great Lakes this summer!
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?
According to our poll result 62% of people prefer eating their pasty with ketchup. Personally I think this has been one of my favorite poll questions on Yooper Steez. If you’re new to our poll questions you can check out the poll archive.
As for myself, I prefer naked pasties, no condiments for me. I have nothing against ketchup or gravy, but my usual take is that condiments are one more step between deliciousness and my mouth. However, one person suggested sour cream, and I thought that does actually sound pretty good.
Here in the Upper Peninsula we like certain things, and we like them a lot. We love pasties. We love referring to people below the bridge as “trolls”. We love Lake Superior. Turns out, we also love red and black plaid!
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Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll. It was a fun poll to do and a little different than the rest. Feel free to comment with your poll ideas, we would love to hear your ideas!
Christmas is the favorite name of Upper Peninsula towns according to Yooper Steez readers. It is always a favorite among locals and tourists.
In second and third place are Paradise and Gay respectively.
The Upper Peninsula is full of several other interesting names that are familiar elsewhere..
Boston
Delaware
Phoenix
Florida
If you didn’t get a chance to vote before this poll was posted, feel free to leave a comment below to let us know what your favorite town name is, or to share any other interesting U.P. town names.
After asking “What is your favorite month in the Upper Peninsula?” it turns out that two months are tied for the least favorite months in the Upper Peninsula: April and December.
We launched this poll several weeks ago (check out our latest poll) and it took a long time before anyone listed April as their favorite month.
It’s no surprise after the first half of April in 2008. We still have two weeks of April to go, and some U.P. towns have seen the biggest snowstorm of the year this month and several inches of snow since. Yoopers are teased with spring in April and the snow still looms around the corner. Everyone is anxious for spring, as we are right now.
Naturally, there is going to be a bell curve on this graph. Those who live in Ironwood aren’t going to make nearly as many trips across the bridge as those living in St. Ignace or Sault Ste Marie. Though it looks like most people average between 2 to 5 round trips across the bridge in a year.
If you’re new to the site and didn’t get a chance to vote, feel free to comment below and let us know how frequent you cross the Mighty Mackinac.
