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No matter where you were born, your place of birth has a history, a heritage of its own. Michigan's Upper Peninsula is replete with the sights and sagas of America's birth. From Sault Ste. Marie, the oldest city in the Midwest to Calumet, a city that was once larger than Detroit and was considered as a location for the state's capitol, Michigan's Upper Peninsula played a part in the growth of our country.

Native American Powwow in Sault Ste. MarieThrough a cooperative effort with the Bureau of Michigan History, UPTRA and the Outdoor Journal Productions, a series of five pathways have been developed to present our heritage to you. The television program, Discovering Michigan's Upper Peninsula or Discovering Michigan Presents the Northern Experience offers short visual experiences to tease your mind weekly during spring, summer, and fall. Check the Heritage Pathways map for an outline of travel for each pathway.

The waterways of the Great Lakes offered an easier access to the west. Much of their history is linked to the Jesuit missionaries that followed the fur traders. Father Jacques Marquette was the first priest at the Mission of St. Ignace, a community established in 1671 of Ojibwa, Huron, Ottawa, and French people. He became famous for his travels of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River while Father Baraga was the first Catholic Bishop in the region and was known as the "Snowshoe Priest". A statue of this dedicated priest rising more than six stories above Keweenaw Bay between L'Anse and Barage keeps a watchful eye from a rocky bluff.

The Tower of History in Sault Ste. Marie is dedicated to the memory of the early missionaries. The 21-story tower overlooks the St. Mary's River and Soo Locks.

Recent legislation created the Keweenaw National Historical Park encompassing the Calumet area and its rich history. Mining days come alive as you venture around the restored mining ghost town of Victoria near Rockland. The world's largest mine hoist is on display at the Quincy Mine. Coppertown USA Museum in Calumet interprets the history of copper mining that began thousands of years ago. There are several mine tours and museums available in the region as well as the elegant Calumet Theatre built in 1898. The theatre hosted famous performers such as Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Sarah Bernhardt, Lillian Russel, and John Phillip Sousa.

Fort Wilkins was built at the tip of the Keweenaw in Copper Harbor in 1844 to protect the mining communities. It is the last remaining wooden fort east of the Mississippi river.

Several military forts are still found around the U.P. Historical artifacts of old Fort Drummond, the last encampment of British forces in the U.S., can be seen at Drummond Island Historical Museum. The original west wall of Fort Brady is part of the Historic Walkway in Sault Ste. Marie.

Fort Mackinac continues to guard the Straits of Mackinac on the bluff of Mackinac Island. Under occupation of both British and American forces, this fort was strategic in controlling the trading routes of the frontier. Today it comes alive with dramatic re-enactments, craft, and military demonstrations, and period settings among the original buildings.

The Great Lakes has remained an important transportation system. Today, ore freighters are a common site at the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, the ore harbors of Escanaba and Marquette, and along much of the Great Lakes shoreline. Lighthouses dot the shoreline offering guidance to ships finding their way through the inclement weather. Some ships never made it including the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 1,000-foot ore carrier that went down in Lake Superior on a stormy night in 1975. Opportunities for exploration abound in the Straits of Mackinac, Whitefish Point, Alger, Marquette, and Keweenaw Underwater Preserves. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point is a memorial to the men who lost their lives on the Great Lakes.

When Fayette Brown chose the site for an iron smelting village, he selected Snail Shell Harbor on Big Bay de Noc because of the natural harbor, abundant limestone, and surrounding hardwood. The town's twenty remaining buildings serve as a monument to the iron smelting era, bringing back memories of the many iron ore ships anchored there. Fayette State Park, nestled near the harbor, is only an example of Michigan's dedication to the preservation of its history.

The Michigan Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee tells the story of the mining days on the Marquette Iron Range. A modern open pit iron mine can be seen from a platform near Republic. From mid-June thru mid-August, you can take a two hour tour of the Tilden Mine in Ishpeming, (Contact the Chamber of Commerce in Ishpeming or Marquette for details: advance reservations highly recommended). You can enter the Iron Mountain Iron Mine in Vulcan on the train that once carried workers to an underground cavern. The largest steam driven pumping engine in the U.S. is on display at the Cornish Pump and Mining Museum in Iron Mountain. The pump was used to drain 5 million gallons of water a day from the Chapin Mine.

Ishpeming is the proud home of the National Ski Hall of Fame. This facility focuses on various aspects of skiing history and honors athletes each year as inductees into the Hall of Fame.

Timber, like copper and iron, left the Upper Peninsula to help build the urban areas of the Midwest. Records and memorabilia of the early logging days date back to 1870's at the IXL Historical Museum in Hermansville. The museum is the original Wisconsin Land and Lumber Company office building and features the innovative grooved hardwood flooring process that revolutionized the flooring industry. The life of a lumberjack is portrayed at the Tahquamenon Logging Museum in Newberry. The Thunder Bay Inn in Big Bay was once owned by Henry Fort and was the filming location of the movie "Anatomy of a Murder". The real murder actually occurred in a nearby bar, where the bullet holes are still visible today.