This Thesis is divided into five main parts. The first is a loose introduction followed by a more organized four main “acts” broken into three-four chapters each. This research was spawned by spawned by unsated curiosity regarding the many abandoned homes along the roads and highways of the Upper Peninsula. As time went on, more aspects of the Upper Peninsula’s history (and my interaction with it) became attached and intertwined with the material I work with here. There are currently an estimated seven-hundred ghost towns in the Upper Peninsula. My aim in this was to determine what the “make or break” factors were for the towns and cities that exist today in contrast to the places that exist no longer. This thesis is written in a gray area between academic historical research and reflective creative non-fiction and travel writing. It is an exploration of the space between sterile analysis and the inescapable human component of any research or argument. Within this text I go on a journey across the Upper Peninsula in search of answers to a question for which I could not find answers. I take my readers along with me for that journey and share with them the steps and missteps that I took along the way. This work is organized into fifteen main chapters: one per each of the fifteen counties of the Upper Peninsula.
","abstract_html":"<p>This Thesis is divided into five main parts. The first is a loose introduction followed by a more organized four main “acts” broken into three-four chapters each. This research was spawned by spawned by unsated curiosity regarding the many abandoned homes along the roads and highways of the Upper Peninsula. As time went on, more aspects of the Upper Peninsula’s history (and my interaction with it) became attached and intertwined with the material I work with here. There are currently an estimated seven-hundred ghost towns in the Upper Peninsula. My aim in this was to determine what the “make or break” factors were for the towns and cities that exist today in contrast to the places that exist no longer. This thesis is written in a gray area between academic historical research and reflective creative non-fiction and travel writing. It is an exploration of the space between sterile analysis and the inescapable human component of any research or argument. Within this text I go on a journey across the Upper Peninsula in search of answers to a question for which I could not find answers. I take my readers along with me for that journey and share with them the steps and missteps that I took along the way. This work is organized into fifteen main chapters: one per each of the fifteen counties of the Upper Peninsula.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Tanis, Zane E"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Lynn Domina"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2024-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:36Z","subjects":["Creative Writing","Upper Peninsula","Ghost Towns","Creative Non-fiction","Local History","History","English","Nonfiction"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/849","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Lynn Domina"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Tanis, Zane E"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2029-04-04T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Creative Writing","Upper Peninsula","Ghost Towns","Creative Non-fiction","Local History","History","English","Nonfiction"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/849"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This Thesis is divided into five main parts. The first is a loose introduction followed by a more organized four main “acts” broken into three-four chapters each. This research was spawned by spawned by unsated curiosity regarding the many abandoned homes along the roads and highways of the Upper Peninsula. As time went on, more aspects of the Upper Peninsula’s history (and my interaction with it) became attached and intertwined with the material I work with here. There are currently an estimated seven-hundred ghost towns in the Upper Peninsula. My aim in this was to determine what the “make or break” factors were for the towns and cities that exist today in contrast to the places that exist no longer. This thesis is written in a gray area between academic historical research and reflective creative non-fiction and travel writing. It is an exploration of the space between sterile analysis and the inescapable human component of any research or argument. Within this text I go on a journey across the Upper Peninsula in search of answers to a question for which I could not find answers. I take my readers along with me for that journey and share with them the steps and missteps that I took along the way. This work is organized into fifteen main chapters: one per each of the fifteen counties of the Upper Peninsula.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["GHOST PENINSULA"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Lynn Domina"],"dc:creator":["Tanis, Zane E"],"dc:date.available":["2029-04-04T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This Thesis is divided into five main parts. The first is a loose introduction followed by a more organized four main “acts” broken into three-four chapters each. This research was spawned by spawned by unsated curiosity regarding the many abandoned homes along the roads and highways of the Upper Peninsula. As time went on, more aspects of the Upper Peninsula’s history (and my interaction with it) became attached and intertwined with the material I work with here. There are currently an estimated seven-hundred ghost towns in the Upper Peninsula. My aim in this was to determine what the “make or break” factors were for the towns and cities that exist today in contrast to the places that exist no longer. This thesis is written in a gray area between academic historical research and reflective creative non-fiction and travel writing. It is an exploration of the space between sterile analysis and the inescapable human component of any research or argument. Within this text I go on a journey across the Upper Peninsula in search of answers to a question for which I could not find answers. I take my readers along with me for that journey and share with them the steps and missteps that I took along the way. This work is organized into fifteen main chapters: one per each of the fifteen counties of the Upper Peninsula.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/849"],"dc:subject":["Creative Writing","Upper Peninsula","Ghost Towns","Creative Non-fiction","Local History","History","English","Nonfiction"],"dc:title":["GHOST PENINSULA"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Fine Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:36Z"}