How Upper Peninsula business owners survived the warm winter

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) — For many involved with the Upper Peninsula’s winter economy, Mother Nature is a harsh partner, one who wears many faces and has many moods.

Though the economic picture looked grim for many businesses the past few months, the attitude among many is still one of optimism.

“What winter? Yeah, that’s my words,” Jerry Devries, owner of All Seasons Cabins in Steuben in the central UP, said. “There was none. We would get 6 inches of snow and it would melt, and then we’d get another 6 inches, and it would melt. … We couldn’t get a base. We couldn’t get anything to use for Spalding’s sporting goods, you know, snowmobile, etc.”

He said that led to canceled bookings.

“I can’t hold it against them. They can’t come up here and do what they want to do. I wouldn’t want to come up here either,” Devries said.

He had stocked his general store for what he believed would be a busy winter. With no customers, much of his merchandise had to be thrown out.

“Kind of struggling right now with the idea of how we’re going to stock the store and replace everything that expired because there was no one here for all that time. So we had to throw all that stuff away or donate it. And now we have no money in our bank account left because we’ve sucked up six months with no income. My emergency fund is wiped out, so we’re struggling with all that, figuring out what we’re going to do next,” Devries said.

Over in Seney, things were no better. Marc Schooley, owner of The Fox River Motel, had to break the bad news to his guests who believed snow was a sure thing.

“I had the same guy calling me once every Monday,” Schooley said, asking him, “‘Gimme good news. Give me something is there anymore.’ And I’m just like, ‘You know, I wish I could… There’s just nothing.’”

During a traditional winter, snowmobiles outnumber cars in the tiny village of Seney, which is west of Newberry. Schooley once asked a trail groomer to count the sleds on his route.

“On a Wednesday, he went here to the bear trap. He called me at the bear trap and counted 856 sleds,” Schooley said.

In Curtis, a perennial winter playground southeast of Seney, Mike Soder, owner of Curtis Fish and Hunt, said snowmobile rentals were down 95% this season.

“You can’t say it was a complete washout, but it wasn’t much there. The winter never started and it affected everybody, right? I don’t care what business you’re in. It definitely was not good for rentals or just trying to get out ice fishing,” Soder said.

Then there’s Munising, the self-proclaimed Snowmobile Capitol of the Midwest. The town along Lake Superior brags about its abundant snowfall, seeing an average of 230 inches of snow per season, along 330 miles of groomed trails. Not this season. Cori-Ann Cearley, executive director of the Munising Visitors Bureau, admited it was a tough winter for everyone, not just those aboard snowmobiles.

“Your front desk clerks, your housekeepers, your baristas, your waitresses for the restaurants that did not open or saw no business. And those people are surviving on tips and they’re just they’re not getting that money,” Cearley said.

Though economically, the picture looked grim for many businesses, the overall attitude is one of optimism. For many involved with the winter economy, mother nature is a harsh partner, but one with many faces and many moods.

“We’re from the U.P. We are tough and we will be fine. It was a rough winter, but it was the worst. But it’s not the first bad winter. And people here are smart. They budget well. I think that everyone in the Munising area will be fine. We will weather this, and we will be here next year,” Cearley said.

Cearley also points to the immense potential of what’s hoped to be a successful summer ahead.

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