The story behind Upper Peninsula residents’ iconic nickname
Trending
ESCANABA -- On this day in 1979, Upper Peninsula residents took part in a contest that helped give the region one of its most recognizable nicknames: "Yooper."
The contest, held by The Upper Peninsula Sunday Times -- the Sunday edition counterpart to the Daily Press -- asked readers to choose what residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula should be called.
Readers ultimately chose "Yooper," a term that was submitted by Brett Crawford, a resident of Bark River at the time.
The publication's editors had selected 65 other unique possibilities, including "UPer," "Yoopenite" and "Pastian," among others.
The dictionary further details the word "Yooper" comes from the common nickname of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula -- the “U.P.”
"Yoopers have been saying both out loud now for about 40 years, but it’s only in recent years that those beyond the U.P. and its geographical neighbors have begun to encounter Yooper in use," Merriam-Webster said.
The word's journey into the dictionary was moved along by a local judge who spent more than a decade advocating for its inclusion.
Delta County 94th District Court Judge Steve Parks -- then a prosecutor -- wrote letters to a Merriam-Webster analyst for 12 years, using the pen name "Clayton Park," in an effort to convince the dictionary to recognize "Yooper."
Eventually, his persistence paid off. After 12 years of letters, Parks received a call from an analyst in Boston informing him that "Yooper" would be added to the dictionary.
Parks recalled the moment during a recent interview.
"When it was known that it got much bigger than expected, I panicked because I thought that the analyst that I had been writing to at the time was going to be really mad at me," Parks said. "Thankfully -- I'll never forget -- I told her who I was, and she didn't react for what seemed like two minutes but was really just like three seconds. And she started laughing."
The addition of "Yooper" to Merriam-Webster drew attention well beyond the Upper Peninsula. Parks was interviewed by several major news organizations, including CBS News, The Detroit News, New York Daily News and the New York Post, among others.
What began as a local newspaper contest more than four decades ago has become a lasting part of Upper Peninsula identity, with "Yooper" now recognized far beyond the region.
------
Sophie Vogelmann can be reached at 906-786-2021, ext. 148, or svogelmann@dailypress.net.