Small Town Celebrations

The Upper Peninsula is comprised of many small towns that are dotted across the peninsula. I guess you could say there isn't one large city located here, because Marquette is even considered small at 20,000 people. Whatever the case, the U.P.'s many small towns help give the peninsula its character and honestly, it wouldn't be the U.P. without them. And even though these communities are small, the people within them definitely know how to have a good time. More often that not, each community has one or two town gatherings that allows everyone to get together and celebrate the community. Some communities may call it a founder's celebration or a homecoming event. Whatever the case, it brings everyone together and even gets people used to live in that one particular community to come back from time to time. It's an event unlike any other.

Several communities across the U.P. hold celebrations on the Fourth of July that bring many members of the community together. Marquette, Ishpeming, Big Bay, Trenary, Munising, Gladstone, Escanaba, Michigamme, and Curtis are just a few that hold Fourth of July celebrations that are great community-wide events. For many years, my family and I went to the small town of Trenary and took part in the activities there. Trenary is a small town of roughly 250 people made most famous for its Trenary Toast (made by the Trenary Home Bakery) and the Outhouse races in the winter. And it seems most recently, the Fourth of July celebration has taken a backseat to the more popular Outhouse Classic which takes place in later February. The Outhouse Classic draws thousands of people to this small town. And yet I find the Fourth of July celebration to be much more appealing. For one, it takes place in the summer season and you're not freezing your behind off. And it also incorporates a couple of my favorite things about a town celebration: a parade and fireworks. It brings together not just people from the Trenary community itself, but others from Chatham, Eben, Rapid River, Sundell, and Forest Lake. Just one example of what a community-wide event like a Fourth of July celebration can do.

And then there are "Founding"-type events held in a variety of U.P. communities. Following the Fourth of July, the city of Negaunee holds a week-long Pioneer Days celebration. Not only do they have a parade and cap the entire week off with fireworks, but there's also an alumni baseball tournament which helps bring members of the graduating classes of Negaunee back to take part in the tournament. I know there's two separate classes in the baseball tournament, one for the older graduating classes and one for the most recent graduating classes. Either case, it still looks like a great event had by everyone. I kind of wish they'd do something similar in our community, yet our area is so much smaller than Negaunee and our graduating classes weren't nearly as big. Still, I'm sure it'd be fun however we'd get it to work. Negaunee's Pioneer Days has all kinds of events tied into that one week so it's definitely a celebration everyone of all ages can enjoy.

In my hometown of Chatham, during July 31 to August 2, the Chatham Homecoming Celebration will take place in conjunction with the Alger County Fair. Years ago, both events were separate from each other and took place during different weekends. It was decided to combine both events into one weekend and help draw a bigger crowd to both events and that turned out to be a great idea. More people than ever attend the combined event, which includes a variety of activites in three days. One of the highlights for me is the Homecoming Parade which takes place along the highway in Chatham. It's not the biggest parade in the world, yet it's always fun to see the different floats that people put in the parade. And if you have kids, they'll certainly pick up their fair share of candy from the parade! More often than not, there's several old cars, horses, and old farming equipment that people put on display in the parade. And then you get to see many familiar faces on the variety of reunion floats. It's honestly one big reunion celebration and it's neat to see an event bring so many people back to such a small community. There's nothing like it, to be honest.

I just scratched the surface on just a few of many events that take place across the Upper Peninsula in its small towns. It you are interested in finding out about a specific event taking place in the U.P., please leave a comment for me after this blog and I'll try to find out some information for you. Either that, or you can search on-line and you should be able to find some information about a specific event. Whatever the case, it's quite easy to find something to do in one of Upper Michigan's communities. It's why I consider summer to be the U.P.'s best season to enjoy.