Michigan's Frontier Has Almost No One Living In It

Ontonagon — Living in Northern Michigan, I thought I knew what rural really meant. I’m used to driving 45 minutes to go shopping, never getting to try trendy food, and being isolated in the winter. But I was not prepared for my trip to Ontonagon County.

It was vaster and emptier than I could have ever imagined. There’s almost no cell service. You can walk the shoreline alone for miles. The nearest city is four hours away. It’s a remote county surrounded by remote counties, a bastion of wilderness surrounded by more wilderness.

And it may be one of Michigan’s coolest places.

Ontonagon County is located on the shores of Lake Superior, a part of the far western Upper Peninsula. It is known as a frontier county, a designation that means a given county has a population density of less than six people per square mile.

They are rare east of the Mississippi River, and Michigan only has two of them. To put things into perspective, Ontonagon County has about 6,000 people living in it, according to the U.S. Census.

Michigan State’s Spartan Stadium holds 75,000 people. If everyone in Ontonagon went to a Spartan’s game, they would fill up only 8% of the stadium! Aside from a few towns, it’s just forests and rivers as far as the eye can see.

The towns in Ontonagon are nothing to write home about. The town of Ontonagon is the county seat and largest in the county. It has a small little Main Street, a harbor full of boats, one boat-building factory, and almost nothing else.

Getting there was itself a journey. Leaving from Marquette, you take an almost abandoned state highway through forests and farm fields. I saw more turtles walking across the road than I did cars.

White Pine, the other town I visited, was even smaller, and felt like it had popped out of the middle of the woods. Imagine a strip mall surrounded by trees and you have the right idea. I didn’t spend much time here before getting outdoors.

The beautiful scenery and nature are the real reason to visit. The Porcupine Mountains rise out of Lake Superior into a small range of rolling hills and high lakes. Rivers flow uninterrupted. Wolves howl in the night. Waterfalls cascade down broken rocks.

If you want a place where you can actually get outside and experience some wild terrain, this is the place for you. It’s not your typical Up North beach town. There aren’t cute stores or fancy restaurants.

Ontonagon was made for those looking for a rugged, real adventure. If you enjoy hiking long distances, canoeing for miles down empty rivers, climbing remote peaks, and getting away from everyone, then Ontonagon is the place for you.

Ontonagon may be one of the most remote parts of the eastern U.S., but it's only nine hours away from Detroit. You can go from barren wilderness to world class cities in one day. There are very few places in the U.S. where this is possible.

That’s what makes Michigan such an incredible state. Michiganders live in both worlds. We are people of both the city and the woods, the fields and the skyscrapers. Counties like Ontonagon give us an escape from the crowds and the bustle of places like Detroit, Kalamazoo, and Lansing.

If you ever get tired of the big city, all you have to do is keep driving north. The lakes and mountains of our very own frontier are waiting for you.