Frankfort — Northern Michigan is growing old. Transplants are moving in, and young locals are moving out. It’s a dynamic that poses a challenge for Northern Michigan’s future.
Lots of the people who moved up here during Covid were in their 50s or older. A close relative of mine is a great example. She loves Benzie County, because she has family here and has been visiting since she was a child. She decided to move in 2021. She is a member of the local church and is thinking about investing in a business. She even changed her residency, so she pays taxes in Benzie County.
I think she is an example of someone who moved for the right reasons. She wants to support Benzie County and views it as her home. But unfortunately, people moving for the right reasons still contributes to the demographic problem. Like my relative, most of the people who have moved to Northern Michigan recently are middle-aged or older. And most go back home in the winter, wherever that is.
Full-time residents, too, are mostly very old. I bring the average age of my local church down by about 30 years. If you were to guess at the average small-business owner in Northern Michigan, it would probably be a 60-year-old woman looking to retire and move to Florida. Her kids have no interest in continuing the business, and she has no one to give it to when she dies, moves, or retires.
Underlying this age problem is a sort of class system in Northern Michigan. Transplants and the locals don’t really interact. Many transplants, whether subconsciously or not, tend to look down upon local residents. Locals in turn see transplants as not wanting to be a part of the community. It also doesn’t help that locals usually run the services and businesses transplants use, which makes the situation feel more like one between customer and employee than neighbor and neighbor.
So they segregate. Transplants, even the ones who are connected to the community, tend to stick to higher-income areas closer to the lake and trendy towns. The locals live inland. This isn’t a hard rule but a general trend. The biggest factor that decides your status is if you can leave.
Almost every transplant I know leaves during the winter. In Benzie County, where I live, we have around 42,000 people who live here at least part of the year. I’ve seen demographic data that says in the middle of winter, this number drops down to around 18,000 people.
In the winter, more than half of the county simply leaves! Those who don’t leave are often elderly or under the poverty line. Your status is determined by your ability to leave your home for half the year.
Northern Michigan has turned into a demographic timebomb. Young people simply do not want to live here. There are a few hubs where they hang on, like Traverse City or Marquette, but kids graduate high school and are met with a double whammy of higher prices and a lack of jobs.
If they go to college, which they most likely won’t be doing in Northern Michigan, the availability of jobs will probably keep them near wherever they went to school. This creates a vicious cycle. Young people leave, so the population gets older. Fewer people have kids, which means fewer families. A lack of affordable housing and jobs means that the kids that are born in Northern Michigan leave.
Some may return in their 50s and 60s, but that won’t solve the problem. On the current trendline, we will end up with an empty Northern Michigan where only the poorest of the poor actually live there. Everyone else visits for a month or two. Northern Michigan becomes nothing more than a pop-up destination for the wealthy.
I love Northern Michigan as much as anyone, and even I don’t know if I will end up living there. I want to live around people my own age. I don’t want to move to a place where I spend my youth watching a community age.
Fixing this problem requires one thing: a group of 20- and 30-year-olds ready to start families. Even 100 families strategically placed in close proximity could do a lot to fix the problem.
We shouldn’t hate on people who move to Northern Michigan. I myself moved here as a teenager. But we need young people who are willing to give it a try and move here to set the foundations that others can build upon. As much as I sound pessimistic about it, Northern Michigan is full of opportunities for those willing to look.
There are lots of business owners who are aging with no replacements. Most of them are horrified by the thought of letting all their hard work go to waste. I know of at least four businesses that would happily train a replacement. All you have to do is walk into their office and ask. And while the prices of land and housing are going up, there is still lots left if you aren’t looking in the nicest area. For someone with gumption, there are opportunities galore.
I don’t think Northern Michigan is for everyone, but there are so many people who are sick of the rat race and the big cities. Northern Michigan could be the place they need. So many people want to live in an up-and-coming place, but are they willing to put in the work to make a place up-and-coming? Putting yourself at the forefront of a Northern Michigan revitalization could be a way to leave your mark on this world.
We need people who will stay. People who will stay when the snow is falling and the roads turn to shit. People who can deal with the nearest hospital being 40 minutes away. People who will stay to fight the developers tearing down the forests. People who will stay even if there aren’t jobs. People who draw a line in the stand and dedicate themselves to this place.
Jack Ducote is a writer who loves fishing, hunting, the outdoors, and of course, Michigan. He writes under Hemlock Hobo on Substack.
