You Might Find This Interesting...

The people who live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are called Yoopers. Yoopers call people who live in the Lower Peninsula, Trolls, because they live below the bridge.

A great amount of the Yoopers are of Finnish heritage--at least partly. I think so many Finns found themselves in the UP because it reminded them of home--four seasons, snow, lots of trees.

A lot of the early Finns in the UP either worked in the lumber industry or the mining industry. The UP has both copper and iron mines. There have been other kinds of mines, but those two types were the most profitable. Iron mining is still a big thing in the central UP.

People who live in the UP--whether they are Finn or not--have a lot of "sisu." Sisu is a Finnish word that can be best described as "stick-to-it-iveness." To live in the UP, one has to be a strong individual, as the winters, especially, can be brutal. It takes someone with sisu to live--and stay--in the UP.

There are some unique things in the UP. Pasties are a food found here that can't be found in very many other places in the US. A pasty is a Cornish meat and potato pie that makes a fantastic meal. The best pasties are made by old Finnish women. "Pasty" is pronounced with a short "a" sound, like in "cat." It is NOT pronounced with a long "a" as in the word for a stripper's tassel.

One word that is used in the UP and not used anywhere else is "pank." You can pank the cowlick on your head, or pank snow. Basically, you are flattening whatever you are panking: you flatten your cowlick with your hand or the snow with the back of a shovel.