I was born and grew up in Menominee, Michigan,
the seat of Menominee County,
on the Michigan-Wisconsin border,
the gateway to the Upper Peninsula,
halfway between the Equator and the North Pole,
population about 10,000 in 1940,
the fourth largest city in the U.P.,
bordered by the Menominee River
to the south
and Lake Michigan’s
bay of Green Bay to the east,
twin city to Marinette, Wisconsin,
172 miles north of Milwaukee,
120 miles south of Lake Superior.
5.2 square miles,
I could reach any
point in town
on my bike in ten minutes.
Menominee has always enjoyed perfect air,
its stars glisten at night,
its water quality is excellent,
summer temperatures in the seventies,
and winters enjoy an average
annual snowfall of 48 inches.*
“Menominee” means “land of wild rice”,
the staple of the Menominee Indians
who originally populated the region.
The world capital of logging
in the 1890’s,
Menominee was destined
to become a manufacturing town:
paper products, wicker furniture, auto supplies.
The business district spreads along
the Green Bay shore.
Montgomery Ward, the A&P grocery store,
the Five and Dime, the G.I. Surplus store,
the Vogue for women’s clothes.
Once home to fur trappers, lumberjacks,
and Great Lakes seamen,
Menominee in my youth was a man’s world.
My mother and her women friends
each raised three or four children,
managed their households,
tended eye-catching gardens,
and were skilled at hostessing
grand parties in their homes.
Men were breadwinners and captains of the ship,
fanatic about the Green Bay Packers,
spent days at hunting camp each November,
played poker weekly, drank
too much, told raunchy stories.
As boys we learned that males
should be
strong, independent,
athletic,
emotionally unexpressive,
and disinterested in school.
Boys took wood shop and auto shop,
girls took home ec and typing.
As a small town in a rural region
Menominee had no art museums or galleries,
no community exposure to classical music,
no professional theater,
a low percentage
of college graduates.
One traffic light, two movie theaters,
one public and one parochial high school,
eight taverns, fifteen churches.
Two dips of ice cream
cost a nickel at the Ideal Dairy.
Diversity was an unknown concept.
Ninety-nine percent white,
ninety-nine percent Christian
(among those professing religion).
A blue-collar Democratic stronghold in my youth,
65 percent of residents voted for Trump in 2020.
High school football reigns supreme.
The M&M (Menominee-Marinette) game
is the oldest
interstate public school rivalry in the nation,
and the Menominee Maroons have won
three state championships
in their division in the last 25 years.
Crime was infrequent, and parents never worried
about letting their children run free in the neighborhood.
Menominee’s most attractive features
have to do with its outdoor life.
It’s an important Lake Michigan port,
hosts a thriving marina,
and
many locals own sailboats or power boats.
Menominee County has the largest
deer population in the U.P.,
and schools closed each year for the
first day of hunting season.
Nearly every family owns guns,
and
the annual murder rate is almost always zero.
Green Bay beaches are numerous,
and Menominee has some of the best
bass fishing in the nation.
There are seven golf courses in the area.
Camping, swimming, hiking, biking,
snowmobiling,
skating, ice-sailing, cross-country skiing.
It’s a good place for kids to grow up
although a majority usually leave
for more cosmopolitan places.
*Stats from: www.city-data.com
