Da Yoopers Tourist Trap & Museum

More than meets the eye: Da Yoopers Tourist Trap great drive-by gags like Big Gus, the world's largest chainsaw (left) and also carefully observed vignettes of home life in remote areas, remembered and painted by artist Kathy Waters. Jim DeCaire, head of Da Yoopers musical comedy troup, is also a passionate rockhound. His rock shop is well worth a look.

Black flies, rusty cars, deer-hunting, saunas, bingo, beer, and other important aspects of U.P. life have been immortalized in the good-natured comedy sketches and satirical songs of Da Yoopers of Ishpeming. The group's "The Second Week of Deer Camp" and "Rusty Chevrolet" are seasonal classics. Simple pleasures are extolled in songs like "Fishin' wit' Fred": "It's a perfect day for fishin', drinking beer and telling lies. It's a little bit like Heaven when you're fishin' wit' da guys." Da Yoopers were in top form on their 1987 "Culture Shock" album, on sale as a cassette for just $5 in 2005. Later various embarrassments of the digestive tract became a dominant theme. Da Yoopers' musical comedy show has entertained regional audiences for two decades.

Da Yoopers have authentic North Country accents and a variety of musical styles to suit each topic, from Finnish accordion polkas to heavy metal. Da Yoopers can be earthy and crude, which some find hilarious. Others wince at their humor and complain that it stereotypes Yoopers as northwoods hillbillies. Judge for yourself! Visit the "Theater of the Mind" section of their complex website for samples of songs and skits. Be aware, it's not for children.

In 1990 two of the singing Yoopers, Jim "Hoolie" DeCaire and Lynn Coffey, started the highway Tourist Trap as a free outdoor museum and gift shop, where people can get out, stretch, and take in a little local ambiance. Note: "Hoolie" is a junior-high name that stuck, coming from "Julio," the name of a Detroit Tiger.

Outdoor museum highlights include a life-size deer camp diorama, a new 60-foot model of an iron-mining drift, Ishpeming artist Kathy Waters' wonderfully detailed murals of scenes from local life, and metal-workers' art like a 10-foot mosquito. "Big Gus," the Guinness-record world's largest chainsaw, was custom-made by a downstate craftsman. There's a Model A Ford with a front-end bucket, made for snow removal long ago by a Mass City man.

Head Yooper Jim DeCaire is keen on "Yooper Innovations" coming from necessity. Claiming to have "the largest collection of Yooper Innovations in the world" at the tourist trap, he's out looking for more, things like the '56 Buick redone for snowplowing by Tom Weaver of the Handshake Motel in Hulbert. Jim admires the improvisers, "people who have the brain power and vision to create and build something that is functional and fun to operate. . . . If you live out on a farm and need an ATV to get around the back 40 but you can't afford it, you build one yourself. [These innovators say their talent comes] from the long yooper winters during which there's a lot of time to think, read and dream."

To Jim, it's by no means necessary to have been born and bred in the Upper Peninsula to achieve Yooper status. Downstaters who survive a couple of winters and are adept at living on little and juggling four income streams are Yoopers as much as anyone else. Jim worships entrepreneurs for the same reasons, especially now that he himself has a new entrepreneurial role in devising, producing, and marketing specialty items like a 500-piece U.P. jigsaw puzzle based on his collection of vintage tourism art. "It's fun being with entrepreneurs. We feed off each other's energy, like seagulls at the dump," he says.

The ROCK KNOCKERS SHOP for rockhounds has supplies (tumblers, hammers, polishers) in addition to samples, gifts, and displays of specular hematite, kona dolomite, and other collectible area minerals. Head Yooper Jim DeCaire is a serious rockhound and loves to introduce his hobby to others.

The store may be worth a stop even if you have no interest in the gag gift items and fart shelf. Da Yoopers' own $1 Yooper Glossary: Understanding the Yoopanese Language, read aloud, will enliven any car trip. The shop has some terrific wood carvings, many cribbage boards, lingonberry jam imported from Finland, attractive kitchenware with rooster and apple themes, and an excellent section of books and tapes on Finnish-Americana, among other regional subjects. Some items are of unquestionably bad taste, and some parents might want to think twice before bringing their children inside. In summer, when air-conditioning is on, the rock shop has a separate entrance.

Da Yoopers' vast online store and web site includes some tucked-away gems. "Hoolie's Rock Pickin' World" is about rock and mineral collecting in the area, with links to leading mineral clubs and attractions. "Hoolie's True B.S." features head Yooper Jim DeCaire's stories about growing up in Ishpeming - more comic realism in the Cully Gage/Jerry Harju vein. Every neighborhood had its own personality, he explains, and in his neighborhood, everybody was a little bit crazy. Their unpredictability protected them from tougher kids. There's a small "U.P. Hall of Fame" (suggestions welcome) and "Yooperville U.S.A." with many subcompartments like "Tales from Deer Camp" (contributions welcome) and "Da Yoopers School for Da Truly Ungifted" academic satire.

On U.S. 41 just west of Ishpeming. Look for billboard. Mail-order available. (906) 485-5595. Open year-round. Free. Handicap accessible.

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