TRENARY

Region: Pictured Rocks/Munising/Au Train

Originally a sawmill town founded in 1903, Trenary grew into a large enough farming community to have two groceries, three bars, and a movie theater. Now many of those are gone, but some businesses and scenes are remembered with lively if fading paintings on the sides of buildings. Trenary has a tremendous sense of local pride. The Lions Club built a park east of town. The TRENARY FARMERS' COOP store (906-446-3411) is a grocery and general store at the north end of Trenary Avenue, the main business street. It continues to be cooperatively owned and run, open to the general public. Hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 8-6, Sunday 10 to 4. Sunday 8 to 1. Two bars are on Trenary Avenue, too, the SILVER DOLLAR with a log front, and the TRENARY TAVERN (906-446-8305), which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Sunflowers and lupine bloom against a sky that’s always blue on the rear wall of the corner house at the top of the hill.

To get into town from U.S. 41 between Rapid River and Marquette, turn east at the blinker light. In less than a block you'll be on Trenary Avenue, the north-south street with most of Trenary's businesses.

Trenary has two taverns, one with pizza and home cooking A cooperative grocery across the street is a vestige of the Finnish rural cooperative movement that thrived in the U.P and northern Wisconsin and Minnesota in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Trenary Home Bakery, no longer open to the public, put Trenary on the map in the U.P. with its "Trenary Toast," traditional Finnish korpu or twice-baked cinnamon toast, sold in a distinctive brown bag. Korpu made a convenient quick breakfast for whoever had to get up early to milk the cows.

Trenary is a picture-perfect small farm town from the era of small farms. Today it has residents with great community spirit, but lots of empty buildings. One art project enlivened many buildings with vignettes of fondly remembered farm and town life.

The Trenary Outhouse Classic, held the last weekend in February, has gained Trenary more national publicity. It's one of those colorful, easy newswire stories that harried editors find hard to resist. Centerpiece of the weekend is an outhouse race. Requirements: build an outhouse of wood or cardboard, install a toilet seat and TP roll, mount it on skis, and push it 500 feet to win. Subcategories include "People's Choice," "Most Original," and "Most Miles Traveled." Check out its website for details. The event, with food and a lot of beer, is an excuse to get out and party when there's still a good six weeks of winter left.

Return to Pictured Rocks/Munising/Au Train