"Industrialization in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has some residents pushing for protection of the region’s celestial splendor."
"On a Saturday in September in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a dozen people navigated through the woods to the shore of Lake Superior, where the waves licked softly against the land. Above, a wash of stars filled the blue-black sky, cut in half by the haze of the Milky Way.
Photographers set up cameras and tripods to capture the cosmos, as coarse dark sand, a relic of the region’s mining boom, crunched underfoot. In the early 20th century, a stamp mill dumped millions of tons of the metal-rich grains, a byproduct of copper extraction, in the water.
It was “maybe one of the greatest ecological disasters in the Great Lakes region,” said Tom Oliver, a wildlife ecologist and night sky photographer leading the excursion. The beach “is pretty desolate,” he added. “But it has sweeping views of the sky.”
Today the western Upper Peninsula may be on the cusp of another mining boom, as companies assess the region as a source of critical minerals to support the clean energy transition. Lawmakers and some locals say that a revival of the mining industry would provide a much-needed boost to an economy that has struggled since the last boom went bust. Others, however, fear that mining will further pollute the region — not just its land and water, but also its pristine skies."
Katrina Miller reports for the New York Times with photographs by Emily Elconin November 24, 2025.
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