U.P. Colony - by Phil Bellfy (Paperback)

About the Book

Why has the U.P.'s vast wealth, nearly unrivaled in the whole of the United States, left the area with poverty nearly unrivaled in the whole of the United States? Read U.P. Colony and discover the truth.

Book Synopsis

Winner of 2021 U.P. Notable Books Award

In the 1980s, Phil Bellfy pondered the question: Why does Sault, Ontario, appear to be so prosperous, while the "Sault" on the American side has fallen into such a deplorable state? Could the answer be that the "American side" was little more than a "resource colony"--or to use the academic jargon of "Conflict and Change" Sociology--an "Internal Colony." In UP Colony, Bellfy revisits his graduate research to update us on the state of the Sault.

The ultimate question: why has the U.P.'s vast wealth, nearly unrivaled in the whole of the United States, left the area with poverty nearly unrivaled in the whole of the United States? None of the conventional explanations from "distance to markets," to "too many people," to "disadvantageous production costs," have any credibility. Simply put: "Where did the $1.5 billion earned from copper mining, $1 billion from logging, and nearly $4 billion in iron ore go?"

To get to the bottom of these thorny questions, Bellfy looks at the possible economic pressures imposed by "external colonial powers." The pressure-points examined in this book include the presence of a complimentary economy, lopsided investment in one sector, monopoly style management, disparity of living standards, a repressive conflict-resolution system, and the progressive growth of inequality over time.

In UP Colony, Dr. Bellfy has revisited his MA thesis and brought this analysis up-to-date in conjunction with the Sault's Semisepticentennial-the 350th anniversary of its French founding in 1668.

Review Quotes

"In the 1980s the author headed north and attended Lake Superior State University at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. As a student he was struck by the differences between the sister cities on either side of the St. Mary's River. The American Soo was clearly in decline while the Canadian Soo prospered. The question why turned into a master's thesis that grew to include an examination of the economic woes of Michigan's U.P. This short book includes the original thesis and a 20-year update of the manuscript. For a book of only 70 pages, it is filled with eye-opening facts that clearly show that the U.P. was treated as if it was no better than a colony in which the colonizing country systematically exploited its enormous wealth then left it one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the country." --Tom Powers, Michigan in Books

"There are many people who will benefit from reading this book: academic readers and researchers; nonfiction writers working on similar themes; and more "creative" authors who want to get the facts straight, whatever their projects. The extensive bibliography will be helpful to many of these readers, too. UP Colony is a fairly quick read and easy to follow with its typical academic format of stating a premise/theory, organizing the points of the argument, supporting that argument with facts and statistics, and finally drawing a conclusion." -- Deborah K. Frontiera, U.P. Book Review

"Bellfy's deft rural sociological analysis cuts through centuries of whitewashing and exploitation with a single stroke" -- Victor R. Volkman, Marquette Monthly

"My son Jeff recommended I read this book written by Sault Ste. Marie and MSU professor Phil Bellfy. I read the 67-page book over the 4th of July weekend. It's an interesting read about how exploited the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has been over the last three centuries and how my hometown and the entire UP remains a poorer area than Appalachia despite providing the greatest amount of resources to the rest of the nation and the world over this period( timber, iron ore, copper, etc.). He makes the point that the UP of Michigan is effectively a "colony" of the US that is exploited for its resources with little returned to the local areas, as all of the spoils leave the UP going to investors in other parts of the country, particularly the Boston area. To see the word "exploited" used so many times when talking about where you were born and raised and where your family ran a small business is a sobering feeling. Bellfy effectively also contrasts the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan experience with the growth and prosperity in neighboring Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario where Canada, he explains, didn't exploit the area like on the American side which allowed that community to grow and prosper so much because of local investment of resource revenues. For example, the Sault Ontario area had the largest steel manufacturer in all of Canada and it had one of the largest paper mills in the world. Sault Michigan never had a manufacturing plant like those resource-based manufacturing plants. It sure gives a Sault Ste. Marie boy a good reason to ponder this analysis of my hometown and its history as the third oldest city in the nation. This is a book that will really make you think about how our country was settled and how resources were allocated beginning in the late 1800s and two subsequent centuries." -- Leon Hank, author of Proud Hunters - Proud Yoopers, CAO of MDOT, CFO of MERS, Board member of MUCC. Retired from MDOT. Born and raised in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan