When’s the last time you watched a sunrise? Perhaps it was while you were in the car driving to work? Or from a distance out of a kitchen window, while making breakfast. When’s the last time you got out of bed for the sole purpose of watching the sunrise?
For Marquette resident Bugsy Sailor, 41, it was yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that, too. For nearly the past six years straight. A few years ago, Sailor made it a tradition to watch and photograph the first sunrise of the year on New Year's Day.
![]()
Tom BuchkoeIn 2019, upon finishing that resolution, he decided to up the stakes and watch the sunrise every single day of the year. This year, 2024, marks Sailor’s sixth consecutive year of waking up to take photos of the sunrise every single day. The resolution has grown into a larger project called
Year of the Sunrise.
No matter the weather, the goal was the same: venture outside to witness and capture a photograph of the sunrise. Today, there’s an entire website and community of folks who have joined in, sat alongside, viewed, pledged, shared, and purchased these sunrise photos.
Although the results have been heartwarming, Sailor admits most days have been awfully chilly.
“The project started in January along Lake Superior, so it’s cold and brutal,” he says. “The inclement weather aspect is really important to me, and what I try to document. I think more years than not, there are eight different months that had snow on the ground at sunrise, from October through May.”
Sailor says the coldest sunrise was met with -35-degree wind chills, and the average temperature at sunrise for the entire project has been a mere 36 degrees.
“My average experience is hardly above freezing, so I’m in a winter jacket more days than not,” he says. “Doing this on the shores of Lake Superior is not a subtle endeavor, it’s a harsh environment throughout a lot of those winter months.”
![]()
Tom Buchkoe
It’s a harsh exterior, but at the heart of it, Lake Superior is truly home for the Yooper. It’s also where about 95 percent of the sunrise photos were taken.
“I think my soul is buried somewhere out in the middle of Lake Superior, and even if I relocate elsewhere, I will always come back here,” he says. “There’s this magnetic attraction. I would guesstimate that 95 percent of the project is from Marquette County. There are a lot of photos from Baraga. My favorite location on Superior is probably Whitefish Point on the eastern end, but that’s a 2.5- or 3-hour drive and I can’t get there as often as I like. Marquette is an eastward-sloping shoreline, and there’s countless sunrise views and vantage points from right in town to the beaches to Sugar Loaf and further North.”
Although he was a bit hesitant at the start of the daunting, ambitious, 365-day goal, once Sailor hit the one-month mark, and then the halfway point that June, he realized that there was a lot to gain from the experience.
Surprisingly enough, the early riser doesn’t consider himself a natural morning person. Getting out of bed and out of the door each day still takes a lot of effort, whether it’s 5:55 a.m. or 8:35 a.m., but there have been many positive effects he’s witnessed from the routine practice.
“You certainly become much more attune to nature, especially the turning of the seasons,” he says. “I have my home beach that I go to frequently. This is an exaggeration, but I feel like I could be blindfolded and led through the trees and know where every single root and trunk is and not trip. It’s a very intimate knowledge of this small little section of Lake Superior.”
Sailor considers the benefits subtle but agrees that getting up and moving early can help set the foundation for the rest of the day. It can also help serve as a gentle reminder to slow down as life gets more hectic, busy, and heavy. Even if the sky is cloudy and gray, and it often is during Michigan’s winter, the peace of a sunrise can serve as a constant reminder that life carries on.
Not every day is easy though, Sailor says.
“It all goes in phases, there’s ebbs and flows where I’m kind of grumpy and over it, and I get inspired and reinvigorated all over again,” he says.
![]()
Tom BuchkoeA self-proclaimed ‘numbers guy,’ he estimates taking around 30 photos a day for 2,000 days, which adds up to around 60,000 photos in total. Over that time, each year of the initial project has created a different sort of phase along the way, he says.
“The first two years of the project were very much about myself, going inward, and not taking nature and the outdoors for granted,” he says. “I wanted to make sure I got outside every day, kind of like a meditation about being more present in the world every day. There were a couple years where the following of the project grew, where it was really about trying to do this for everyone else, and how much joy everyone else got from it, which has really kept me going the last couple of years.”
He hopes that his project, along with his other businesses and endeavors (he is the owner of the Upper Peninsula Supply Co., and vice president and co-founder of the Fresh Coast Film Festival, and the founder of both Plaidurday and 906 Day) can help inspire folks.
“What I want other people to see in it, along with all my projects, is what can come of something when you pour all of your energy into it, and explore every idea of what it can be,” he says. “You don’t worry about the long-term product of it, you’re just pouring everything you can into it, because you have faith in it and believe it’s a good thing. I hope whatever others want to do, I hope they chase those passions and hobbies and explore every avenue of them.”
The project has already spurred inspiration from coast to coast, as the Year of the Sunrise has led to people
signing pledges to watch more sunrises and has been featured on various television programs including
Adult Swim’s ‘Joe Pera Talks With You’ and a
Pure Michigan tourism video.
Marquette resident Ashley McGrath, 33, has been inspired by Sailor to take the pledge to watch more sunrises herself. She and her family have even joined Sailor early in the morning to catch the colorful dawn skies at Clark Lambros Park in Marquette. Since taking the pledge, she’s witnessed 123 sunrises of her own.
McGrath is from Clawson, a Detroit suburb, but attended Northern Michigan University and fell in love with the U.P. She heard of Sailor and his different endeavors and was intrigued to meet the ‘local celebrity.’
“We met for coffee, and I instantly adored him, as everyone does,” she says. “He’s just such a creative soul. The sunrise project really exploded in the most beautiful way, and it’s been nice to support him, watch it grow, and watch him be inspired.”
Even though McGrath considers herself a ‘morning person,’ the intentionality behind the goal of getting up solely to witness the sunrise spoke to her.
“It was a nice way to slow down right in the morning, and to start your day,” she says. “It actually made a huge difference for myself too. I really appreciate him instilling that in a lot of us.”
Having moved to the area from a more ‘hustle and bustle’ city in the Lower Peninsula, McGrath enjoys the local and personal focus that an area like Marquette has.
“It’s a small town that if you want to be something when you grow up, you can,” she says. “Bugsy’s a big representative of that. It’s nice that you get to be who you are, and you can succeed and actually have a life that you enjoy.”
She also hopes folks can make and take their own version of The Sunrise Project wherever they may live.
“It’s a view of something local, but also a reminder to take that back to your own hometown or where you’re residing,” she says.
The Year of the Sunrise gallery exhibit is on display at Sailor’s
Upper Peninsula Supply Co. in downtown Marquette. The organized gallery shows 365 photos, organized by date, and is viewable during normal business hours. Photos are available
for purchase on the website.
Sarah Spohn is a Lansing native, but every day finds a new interesting person, place, or thing in towns all over Michigan, leaving her truly smitten with the mitten. She received her degrees in journalism and professional communications and provides coverage for various publications locally, regionally, and nationally — writing stories on small businesses, arts and culture, dining, community, and anything Michigan-made. You can find her in a record shop, a local concert, or eating one too many desserts at a bakery. If by chance, she’s not at any of those places, you can contact her at sarahspohn@issuemediagroup.com