It was the longing for home – and the convenience of a close airport and high-speed internet -- that prompted Mark and Katelyn Preston to move back to the U.P. in 2022, after eight collective years working in New Mexico, Arizona and Indiana.
During her first move away in her 20s, Calumet native Preston remembers comforting herself that she could always return home if she hated life elsewhere. And though she values her out-of-state experiences, she jumped when the couple’s joint employer approved remote work so they could move near family outside Houghton. Aiding that decision: the ease of local air travel and high-speed internet.
Today, the couple works remotely for an Indianapolis-based roofing company -- Katelyn in digital marketing, and (fellow former U.P. native) Mark in a client services role involving frequent travel. Their daughter Scarlett is one.
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Courtesy of Katelyn PrestonMark and Katelyn Preston with their daughter Scarlett.“It’s so nice for her to get to create relationships with family and friends in the area,” says Katelyn, 32. “I’m excited to watch her experience a lot of the activities I did growing up -- beach days, bonfires, sunsets, camping (and) just being outside without fear.
“A lot of people who grew up here and left, and lived somewhere else for a little while, have said the experience of a new place really helped them appreciate the U.P. a lot more. The pace of life here is exactly what we want it to be. I think that’s the biggest advantage for us -- setting our own pace and going as fast or as slow as we want.”
The Prestons’ experience is not uncommon. In fact, they fit into a key demographic targeted by U.P. job recruiters: Former residents with valuable career experience who might wish to move back and re-experience the U.P. lifestyle.
To that end, key organizations
Remote Workforce Keweenaw and
Return North report success in both finding that out-of-region talent, and in supporting transplants who are managing their work remotely.
Keeping ‘em coming
Results haven’t been numerically tracked, but Remote Workforce Keweenaw, a regional initiative, has seen marked success in persuading remote workers to live and work out of the U.P., reports founder Keith Meyers.
The greatest number of transplants have come from metro areas of the upper Midwest, but others have moved from the East and West coasts, and they include “weather migrants” fleeing detrimental environmental events like wildfires and hurricanes.
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Remote Workforce KeweenawA remote worker networking event held last summer in Calumet. The event was hosted by the villages of Calumet and Laurium as well as Main Street Calumet and Remote Workforce Keweenaw.
Initiated in 2018, the marketing end of the program uses social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Substack, Pinterest, X, Blue Sky, Threads, Instagram and YouTube) to promote life and work in the U.P., partly via firsthand success stories from those working remotely in the U.P.
Meyers has personally tracked 226 remote workers countywide since the start of the initiative but knows the actual number to be significantly higher.
“My strategy has been all about relentlessly presenting a five-pillar value proposition,” he explains. “It starts with a question: Do you embrace winter? If you do and would appreciate living in a place with ubiquitous natural beauty, no congestion, lower crime, and likely lower housing costs … we may be the most amazing place you have never heard of.”
The initiative also encourages remote workers to
visit Keweenaw for “work-cations” that can temporarily give them a taste of the area. And it stages remote worker networking events (so far in Hancock, Chassell, and Calumet/Laurium) to promote interaction and encourage people to actively engage in their communities.
“One thing challenging about remote work is not being able to go to an office and make friends there,” Meyers notes. “Through our remote worker networking events, they meet people who are similarly situated and can either brainstorm how to work better or make friends and establish deeper roots. It helps keep people in the community.”
The program initially centered around just Chassell Township but expanded with grant funding through the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region and support from regional groups including the Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance, Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce and Copper Shores Community Health Foundation. Kansas Department of Commerce retiree Meyers has also donated time and money.
Rounding up recruits
As vice president-business development at state-funded entrepreneurial hub MTEC SmartZone, Jason Mack helped start Return North eight years ago as an annual on-site job fair and supporting website aimed at helping tech-based U.P. firms recruit workers. It quickly expanded to serve other area employers needing mid-level talent, and this year will respond to demand by working year-round to serve all employment sectors.
Mack notes that in-person and online participation in the job fair has risen each year, especially when measuring out-of-region participation. The date and location for the 2025 fair will be announced this summer.
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Remote Workforce KeweenawA remote worker networking event held in Chassell last spring.
Because U.P. colleges and universities already focus on recruiting recent college grads, the program targets mid-level workers with at least five years of experience. U.P. natives living elsewhere are a major focus of recruiting efforts; census data helps organizers understand where former residents are migrating so they can finely direct their (mostly) social media advertising.
“Depending on the companies we’re serving for our fair, we’re going to use our marketing dollars wisely, targeting areas that might benefit people with some connection to this area,” Mack explains. “If you’re talking about the western U.P., a strong number of (U.P. natives) move to the Fox River Valley/Appleton/Green Bay area, and from the eastern side they move to downstate Michigan. If we can attract people back, we’re doing our job even if they’re in the single digits. But in many cases, we’re pulling whole families back for an even wider impact on communities.”
Helping to persuade spouses and children to relocate along with their family breadwinners can be challenging, Mack says. To address that, he maintains contacts with multiple U.P. employers in technology, healthcare, corrections and other industries that may wish to employ spouses working in other fields.
He believes the younger generations’ prioritization of work-life balance could be a major recruiting point for the U.P., where advantages generally include shorter commutes, less traffic congestion and easy access to winter sports and other outdoor recreation.
Looking ahead
Meyers and Mack say they’re unsure how the
reduction in remote work opportunities being initiated by the federal government could affect future movement to the U.P.
But they emphasize the socioeconomic and cultural value in continuing to recruit as many remote workers north as possible.
“We still see it as a tremendous opportunity for rural America, and it’s been a game changer for us up here,” observes Meyers. “I can’t emphasize enough the talent these people have, and when they get plugged in, the difference it can mean for organizations in our communities.
“Roughly 60 percent of remote workers here are in info-tech, and a lot have six-figure salaries and insured lives … they aren’t using Medicare and Medicaid, they have disposable income, they’re eating in restaurants, shopping at businesses and building homes. So, all these resources are being pumped into rural America from outside the region.
And just because these individuals are working remotely when they arrive doesn't mean they want to always work remotely, so they represent a potential candidate pool for local employers.”
Chassell resident Meyers says his experiences spending childhood summers with his Chassell grandma helped shape the way he relates to people – and ultimately, his career success.
Houghton resident Mack is a transplant from Minnesota.
“I find I can enjoy all aspects of life, from work, family to my community,” he says of the U.P. lifestyle. It’s not slower, but a better pace of life. And that’s something a lot of larger metropolitan areas can’t always provide”.
Originally from Kalamazoo, freelance writer Michelle Miron now lives in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, where her side hustle is selling vintage clothing.