PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 29 



In the southern portion of the Upper Peninsula 

 less than 50 inches of snow falls; in the interior 

 of the southern peninsula, 30 to 50 inches. Thus, 

 dwellers in the north may expect six months of 

 sleighing, of winter sports, of winter feeding for 

 their live-stock, of certain moisture and a safe cov- 

 ering for winter grains and such vegetables as may 

 be left in the ground until spring, of fields ready 

 for the plow as soon as the snow disappears in April, 

 and of a quick run-off of surface waters through 

 the unfrosted soil. Yet to some the seemingly eternal 

 snows of the north country become irksome, even 

 appalling. The annals of the pioneers are replete 

 with declarations of the utter loneliness, the terribly 

 complete isolation which the deep snows of winter 

 enforced on those who ventured to raise their roof- 

 trees by Grand Traverse Bay or on the Copper 

 Eange. Today, the telephone and the rural mail ser- 

 vice, the tractor-drawn snow roller used on northern 

 highways, farmers' clubs and rural winter life of 

 the deep snow region, have made life more endurable. 

 Destructive wind-storms are rare in Michigan, 

 though by no means unknown. Their effect is very 

 local. They are rare near the lakes. While Michigan 

 is not commonly thought of in connection with tor- 

 nadoes, they are sufficiently frequent to be taken 

 account of in the extreme north as well as the ex- 

 treme south of the State. A genuine "twister" oc- 

 curred on the Keweenaw Peninsula near the entrance 

 to Portage Lake on June 10, 1920, doing some 

 damage to buildings and throwing down consider- 



