What's Up North?
In 1997, the consensus opinion of WeekEnd viewers defined Northern Wisconsin as north of Highway 64. See 1997 Up North RealAudio clip (running time 3:42).

Do you have a different opinion? Let us know by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

We'll post the messages here.

Peter Sobol:
You know you're Up North when you're the only person in the restaurant who has to ask what chicken booyah is.

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Christine Sloan-Miller:
While I would argue "Up North" is north of Highway 8, mainly it's a state of mind:

"Up North" is seeing soaring bald eagles and new-born deer in your backyard so often you feel almost blasé about the sightings—almost.

"Up North" is struggling through 7-8 months of winter - and completely forgetting that icy pain once the glorious Northern summer arrives.

"Up North" is sitting on the beach of a deserted Northern lake, gazing at the tall pines across the water, and feeling as though you're the only one on earth.

"Up North" is breathing clean, sweet air while hiking a path with beautiful vistas around each bend.

"Up North" is walking down Main Street and having complete strangers warmly greet you.

"Up North" is a place you can visit for a short time each year - but still feel as though you're "home" the next time you return.

"Up North" is a place where you can forget about the worries incurred in your "Down South" life.

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Steve Petersen:
When I was a kid, I used to be able to say exactly where it was - at the end of a dead end road near Lake Tomahawk. It was at my family's cabin on Bird Lake.

Later I learned that for many people Up North started at the pair of white pines that guarded Highway 51 between Tomahawk and Hazelhurst. In the mid-1980's, a storm blew them down, and there was such public mourning for them that replacements were planted. Some of the effect is lost since they were planted further back from the road and have a lot of growing to do, but to many people I'm sure that's still the gateway to "Up North".

During the years that I lived downstate, I learned to accept many different definitions of Up North. Wisconsin Dells, Hayward, Green Lake, Door County, Crivitz. . . A year ago I moved to Superior, and all the places that I used to say were Up North are now Down South. Around here, Up North is Canada, and I've heard Warren Nelson from Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua say anything south of Highway 2 is Confederate.

Now I'm the Superintendent of the Brule River State Forest, caretaker of the place a lot of people feel is the essence of Up North. I tease my downstate friends that you're not really a Ranger if you work south of Highway 2. (There are only 4 of us up here, including Big Bay State Park.)

Where is Up North? I don't know for sure, but I'm glad I'm here.

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Carol Banks, Menomonie:
I had to laugh when my husband and I were watching the Weekend program tonight, and heard the phrase "Up North". It's like we're in a different country altogether. I live in Menomonie, and people in the southern part of the state of Wisconsin even consider this area as "Up North."

We love living in this part of the state where the smell of pine, and all that farm stuff is sweeter than anything you can smell in the city! But, living as we do, sort of in the middle of the state, and yet close to Minnesota--and, no, I'm not a Minnesota Vikings fan either--we are still close to many conveniences.

I used to live in Superior, Wisconsin, and, of course, that really was "Up North." We had no choice but to learn the news from the viewpoint of the state of Minnesota. The best chance we had of getting news from Wisconsin was when we could listen and view Wisconsin Public Radio and Television. People resented the rules that were imposed on us from Madison; in fact, when I visited family and friends in southern Wisconsin and told them where I lived, some people thought that Superior was part of Minnesota! That really surprised me!

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Kris Farley:
Living north of Hwy. 29 and barely south of Hwy. 8 it's funny how we do think we are living "up north" and yet there is quite a bit of the state further north of us yet and compared to northern Minn. we are quite a bit south of that yet, so it really is ones point of view and where you live.

Hwy. 8 does seem to be a dividing line in terms of terrain and also weather can vary along that line. Zone 2 seems to come into that area as well. Southern Wisconsonites seem to think that even River Falls is up north, so go figure.

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Rod Anderson, Harshaw:
What an interesting question. It seems to me that "up-north" is always north of where you are standing. If you talk to a Harshonian going to the U.P., he is going "up north", and if you talk to a Yooper who is going to Canada, he is going "up north".

Also, how do you tell a local from a tourist, up north? The answer to that question is 'speed'. Weekenders are usually in a Big hurry to get here, a big hurry when they are here, and on Sunday in a big hurry to get home. They also tend to wear pricey/trendy( if not strange ) looking get-ups. If you get to Minocqua look for wanderers in the street. They mosey up, and down the island looking for?? They are tourists.

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Kathy Bissen, Madison:
Having lived in Eau Claire for a number of years, it seems to me "Up North" in Wisconsin is north of Highway 29 which runs from Chippewa Falls to the Green Bay area. When I was in Eau Claire it seemed like the weather was always warmer and there was less snow south of Hwy 29 and it was colder and snowier north of that line. Purely anecdotal and not scientific, but that's where I consider Up North to be.

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Tracy Will:
Up North begins along Wisconsin's "tension zone" where the forest makes its transition from a hickory-oak-maple hardwood forest to one dominated by conifers. This line varies across the state, altered by human hands that cut and remove the blanket of white pine from its norther reaches.

As a rule of thumb, the transition to northern Wisconsin begins at Highway 29, commits its northern intentions at Highway 64, and completely becomes up north by US Highway 8. Of course, Portage, in southernly Columbia County bills itself as "where the North begins," and for all of Illinois, Beloit and Kenosha at gateways to the north. But lest we forget Northern Michigan and our Minnesota neighbors, Wisconsin is still unable to fully bear the title of being "Up North," no matter how hard it tries.

How to spot a tourist? The smart answer is that tourists are the only people not working behind a counter, stove, or repairing the highway. The philosophical answer is that every person up north is a tourist, because the land and its beauty endures, sloughing off humanity each winter with a white blanket of snow.

The practical answer is that any car loaded with camping supplies, towing a swaying trailer, and rubbernecking the scenery better be carrying tourists, because Heaven help Wisconsin if they're not.

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