Beyond the Setting Sun

The Land of a Million Mosquitoes

The U.P., the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, was different from Lower Michigan... or so I'd been told.

'Full of short, fat, hairy men, who married short, fat, hairy women, so that everyone was short, fat, and hairy.  All swamp, bears and prisons.'  That's how a store owner in Lower Michigan had described the U.P.  Still, being short and hairy I figured that I had two of the qualifications for fitting right in, and with my growing waistline I was working on the third.

The U.P. was wilder than the lower part of the state and had a different feel about it.  From 1610 to 1763 the area had been controlled by the French.  The first contacts were through Franciscan and Jesuit priests, who sought to bring God to the native Wyandot, Huron, Algonquin, Ottawa and Ojibwa tribes.  The world they found was one of conflict between the local tribes and the Iroquois Nations to the east, who were supplied with arms by the Dutch and English.  Living amongst the Hurons, and learning their language, the Catholic Priests paved the way for French fur-traders.  The Black Robes played a key part in forming the land of New France that would ultimately become Canada.  Characters like Samuel de Champlain, Jean Nicolet and Father Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans to track the waterways of this part of North America.

At the same time came the Voyageurs: French traders and trappers who used their massive canoes to portage furs and other goods around the Great Lakes.  To protect the fur trade the French garrisoned troops at Fort Michillimackinac, on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinaw, from 1681 to 1701, and then later on the south shore from 1712 to 1763.  All this time the British were eager to push the French out, and had taken land further south, with the Iroquois as allies.  Way to the north the Hudson Bay Company brought in British trappers and traders.  The control of the Hudson Bay area was the key to controlling Canada.  In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan the French were hemmed in.  The way west was barred by hostile Sioux Indians and The Rocky Mountains.  Ultimately, though, it was the British naval supriority and ability to maintain supply lines that tipped the balance.  In France, too, the excesses of the aristocracy were paving the way for the French Revolution.

In 1763 British forces took over Fort Michillimackinac and controlled the shore where Lake Huron joins Lake Michigan.  This was the key point in controlling fur trade across the Great Lakes region.  Trees were cut from the Michigan forests to supply masts for the English tall ships.  I'd been told that in the woods there were stil 'King's Pines', marked with a broad arrow for use in George III's fleet.

The American War of Independence weakened the British position in Michigan.  The British were already on bad terms with the Hurons.  One of the local groups of Indians staged a cunning uprising.  It all began with a ball game, similar to lacrosse.  The Indians started to play close to Fort Michillimackinac.  At a key point of the game the ball was flung over the wall and into the fort.  The Redcoats opened up to return the ball and the Indians stormed their way in.  The fort was set on fire and razed to the ground.  The British pulled out and American colonists established trade with the local tribes and brought a garrison back to the area.

1812 came, and with a new war the British tried to re-establish control over the region.  In the dark of night, British marines landed unnoticed on Mackinac Island, scaled the 150 foot limestone cliffs and hauled dismantled cannons up after them.  At daybreak the American garrison at the new fort on the island woke to find themselves surrounded and outgunned... and the fort fell.

The British eventually pulled out of Upper Michigan, but others followed.  Minerals were discovered, and iron, copper, tin and other metals were extensively mined.  In the U.P. many of the trees were also felled.  American entrepreneurs developed and exploited the area, using the Great Lakes to transport the raw materials back East.  Ships could carry goods along the Saint Lawrence River and out to the Atlantic.