Marquette Guide

Marquette is the biggest town in the Upper Peninsula and its unofficial capital — a Lake Superior port that grew up shipping iron ore off the Marquette Iron Range, and the hulking ore docks still define its harbors (the Upper Harbor dock, built 1912, is the last operating ore-loading facility in the city; the retired Lower Harbor dock is now the town’s iconic silhouette). It’s also a real college town, home to Northern Michigan University and the Superior Dome, the largest wooden dome in the world. Wrap it with Presque Isle Park (a 323-acre forested peninsula reaching into Superior) and Sugarloaf Mountain (a 470-foot rock with a stair-and-boardwalk climb to a wide Superior view), and you’ve got the U.P.’s most livable, most scenic town.