Traps? Nah! 4 great Michigan tourist spots

Want to see the world’s largest chain saw, a giant rifle and a ridiculously large tricycle crafted from tractor parts?

Da Yoopers Tourist Trap in the Upper Peninsula city of Ishpeming has them all, as well as a rock shop, T-shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers and a vast array of other stuff the kids will demand to take home.

“We’re having fun,” said the co-owner named Jim DeCaire but commonly known as Hoolie. “People expect that we’re more laid-back here. We try to get our employees to have fun with the customers, and they do.”

Da Yoopers is one of those roadside shopping opportunities that people either love or hate. Some call them tourist traps; others call them awesome.

Da Yoopers have won accolades as a roadside attraction from plenty of well-known critics for its whimsical representation of U.P. life and customs and spirit of fun. It hosts buses of senior citizens and a growing number of international visitors.

“There are a lot of people that came up this year that were first-timers and they just loved it,” Hoolie said. “They tell you, ‘it’s a unique place.’ We live here, and we take advantage of it.”

Here’s the lowdown on a few of our state’s enduringly popular spots for kitschy fun and shopping.

Da Yoopers Tourist Trap

Where: 490 N. Steel St., Ishpeming; phone (800) -628-9978

Open: Fall hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

What it is: A ridiculous collection of unusual and homemade things, all reflecting the U.P. spirit, such as a giant chainsaw, giant rifle and a museum of unusual items put together mostly for laughs.

“We’ve got some real crazy stuff out there,” said co-owner Hoolie.

Also: “We have free bathrooms,” he said. That’s important in the sparsely populated peninsula where way stations are few and far between.

Hoolie’s son runs a bona-fide rock shop at the site. The Tourist Trap also sells legitimate works by U.P. artists. But there are plenty of key chains, T-shirts, hoodies and other U.P. trinkets. In all cases, Hoolie says, the owners try to keep prices reasonable. Items range from 99 cents to $400 or $500.

“We want to give them three things for $20 instead of one,” he said. “It’s always worked really well for us. They’ve got something for their money.”

Online: http://dayoopers.com/

Sea Shell City

Where: 7075 Levering Road, Cheboygan (off I-75 at exit 326). (877) 435-5248

Open: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily during the fall; closes for the season Oct. 18.

What it is:

Perhaps you’ve seen the billboards on I-75: Come see the man-killing clam. There is a very large clam on display at Sea Shell City, which also offers a vast array of sea shells with prices starting as low as 3 cents and ranging up to $1,200. A kid can go home with an array of shells for $5. But there’s much more than shells.

“We’re unique, there’s nothing else like us around,” said owner Leslie Earl, who took over the business 25 years ago. “If you like nautical things and sea life and that kind of thing, you have to come here. Nobody else is going to have all the things we do.”

Besides nautical items, the shop also includes wildlife-themed items featuring deer, eagles and wolves. There also are T-shirts and other apparel.

Now. About that man-killing clam that sucks people into the shell-shopping vortex: The 500-pound specimen from the Philippines is often erroneously referred to as a “man-eating” clam, Earl says. It’s not big enough to contain a full-grown human, and clams aren’t carnivores, anyway. But if it closed on a swimmer’s leg, the swimmer wouldn’t be able to escape its grasp and would drown.

“A lot of people come in when they’re little kids and they see it, and they say ‘It’s huge!’” Earl said. “They come in when they’re a grown up, and they say, ‘It not as big as I remembered it.’”

Online: www.seashellcitymi.com

Mystery Spot

Where: 5 miles west of St. Ignace and the Mackinac Bridge on U.S. 2.

Open: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Oct. 18; reopens in May

What it is: wacky. Mystery Spot lore claims a geological anomaly that made surveying equipment do wacky things in the 1950s.

“It’s a place where gravity doesn’t work,” said assistant manager Randy Binger.

The Mystery Spot experience includes a 25-minute guided tour and a dozen demonstrations of the purported anomaly.

“That’s the main attraction. We also have 18 holes of miniature golf, our forest maze. We also have two great zip lines.”

The zip lines are 750 feet and 450 feet in length, and “You’re going to get probably the best view of the Mackinac Bridge in the area,” Binger said. “It’s just absolutely spectacular.”

The souvenir shop includes all kinds of stuff emblazoned with the question-mark Mystery Spot logo as well as other gifts.

The tour costs $8 for adults; $6 for kids; there are various combination prices that include the zip lines, maze or golf.

Online: www.mysteryspotstignace.com

Hell, Michigan

Where: 4045 Patterson Lake Road, Pinckney

Open: Hours at Hell’s businesses vary; the place will be hopping on weekends through October with various Halloween activities

What it is:

Local lore varies on how the place, home in the mid-1800s to a grist mill and general store, got its name. In any case, the name stuck. Around the turn of this century, retired car dealer John Colone began to develop the site as a tourist attraction which now include Screams Ice Cream, a souvenir shop with a huge variety of Halloween-related items, gags and gifts with ghoulish pedigrees.

A National Weather Service station monitors the temperatures in Hell; you can leave a letter to be singed and stamped with a Hell postmark. Put your face into cartoon-devil cutouts for a photo op, play mini-golf or get married in the tiny but cute wedding chapel. Hell hosts a variety of events including an annual cavalcade of antique hearses.

Online:www.gotohellmi.com