Ishpeming, Michigan

2,016 miles

Apr 12 – Because a knowledgeable Yooper follower of this blog clued me in to this amusing place in Ishpeming, I’ve made some fun discoveries!  Thanks, Library Lynn!

Da Yooper Tourist Trap is “one of the seven wonders of Yooperland,” and offers examples of many of the things I’ve learned about in the Midwest portion of my journey.  I really appreciate a tourist trap that claims the name. 

In the 1970s, a group of friends in Ishpeming started a traveling musical group & comedy show.  Da yoopers are known for their humorous songs and skits, most of which center on life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The band toured throughout the U.P. for several years before recording their first album, Yoopanese, in 1986 on their personal label, You Guys Records.  They have created 13 albums, the latest one in 2006.

Lake Superior agate 

Keweenaw copper specimen

Michigan greenstone pendant

Da Yoopers also own and operate two museums & a gift shop near Ishpeming.  Rock Knockers is an indoor museum that contains various minerals found in the Marquette Iron Range & the Copper Range of Keweenaw, plus exhibits related to the local mining culture.  

Da Yoopers Innovation Museum is an outdoor humorous display of clever devices, some like Rube Goldberg machines.  A 1957 Buick has been mounted with a snowplow.  A snowmobile has been fitted with dirt bike tires for year-round fun.  Like many of the small towns seen across Saskatchewan, this museum contains huge examples of everyday tools, such as a large working chainsaw, a huge rifle, and Da Two-holer (a very special outhouse).  

This comical museum has various other displays in which tourists are encouraged to understand the humor of the Yooper culture.  This reminds me of Baldknobbers in Branson, Missouri, a place my family visited in the 1990s.  It appeared to me that it was all designed to mock the local Ozark hillbillies for the amusement of tourists, so I avoided it.  I went instead to yard sales, where I met real locals, enjoyed real conversations, and brought home authentic souvenirs.   Da Yoopers Tourist Trap does not feel like that kind of derogatory humor by outsiders at the expense of the locals.

Tree of Life snowshoe sconces

Right up front, Da Tourist Trap boasts about its two flushing toilets, since “most rest stops in the Upper Peninsula feature the non-flushing variety found at most deer camps.”  The gift shop sells Da Yoopers music CDs, U.P. art & souvenirs, moccasins, pasty gifts, U.P. food & cookbooks, comical Yooper technology, and deer hunting & beer items.

comfy suede moccasin

info: Wikipedia.com

info & images:  http://dayoopers.com/