Explorers seeking a real escape from the predators of progress and development will be welcomed by the bleak, untouched nature of Michigan’s Upper Promontory. The great northwards isthmus, while bigger than many states, is home to just over 300,000 voters. Yet the protection of this great outback is due as much to the populace’s respect for the landscape as to its sparseness.
Most travelers venturing to the remote northwards landscape of Michigan’s higher headland must come by way of the great Mackinac bridge, the threatening steel-cabled structure spanning over 2 miles of water and connecting 2 completely different cultures. And if the giant conduit isn’t evidence of a separation in itself, the first glimpse from the northerly foot of the postponed passage leaves little question that the visitor has entered a different land.
The air is at once crisp, clear and quiet. Proof of civilization is instantly dispersed. Expressway signs give no appearance of the distance to the subsequent exit “should there even be one. Words like remote, seclusion and isolation spring subliminally to mind. Trudging apprehensively onward, it quickly becomes clear that the narrowing road, and not the dense ancient forest, is the unwelcome attacker in this landscape.
This is Michigans northwards outback, a landscape known only to that Northern US area to the immediate north and south of the U.S.-Canadian border. Unaffected by progress, unattractive to the white-collar pursuits of modern urban culture and closely guarded by the governments of both states, it represents the only remaining remnant of spotless earth. It is the last resort for a displaced, endangered wildlife and for the world-weary spirit of the human animal.
Though the area has welcomed a handful of transplanted retirees and nature searchers, it is truly home only to the survivors and descendants of its original settlers : the mining and logging front-runners. Today, the aging edifices of the region’s first settlements mirror the silent expressions of the elderly citizenry, both spooky reminders of a glorious history. Now mines and museums serve as monuments to the bygone time of what had previously been the great dominion of a blue-collar elite.
Click here : http://upnorthmich.com/ and http://upnorthmich.com/michigan-info/spend-a-wonderful-vacation-on-mackinac-island for more information.
