The Yellow Dog Plains is an area north and west of Marquette, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. The Yellow Dog River flows through it, as does the Salmon Trout River. The Salmon Trout River is unique in that it has a breeding population of coasters, a potamodramous form of brook trout. Coasters are virtually extinct from their native range on the south coast of Lake Superior, except for the Salmon Trout River. The Yellow Dog Plains is a remote and virtually untouched wilderness, aside from large scale logging operations. There are extensive forests of Eastern white pine, with reports of some of the trees in the Yellow Dog Plains reaching heights of 31 meters.
Kennecott Minerals Corporation, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, is currently considering opening a nickel-copper mine in the Yellow Dog Plains. The plan, called the Eagle Project by Kennecott, has garnered both local support and opposition. Proponents claim that the mine would produce jobs, while the opposition claims the mine would produce irreversible environmental damage.
Famous quotes containing the words yellow, dog and/or plains:
“Tom’s great yellow bronze mask all draped upon an iron framework. An inhibited, nerve-drawn; dropped face—as if hung on a scaffold of heavy private brooding; & thought.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The hounding of a dog pursuing a fox or other animal in the horizon may have first suggested the notes of the hunting-horn to alternate with and relieve the lungs of the dog. This natural bugle long resounded in the woods of the ancient world before the horn was invented.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Plains are not forgiving. Anything that is shallow—the easy optimism of a homesteader; the false hope that denies geography, climate, history; the tree whose roots don’t reach ground water—will dry up and blow away.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)