The Changing Church Landscape of the Upper Peninsula

The Gallup organization recently reported that the percentage of US adults who attend religious services weekly or nearly weekly dropped from 42 percent in the early 2000s to 30 percent in 2021-23. The decline in regular attendance at religious services is part of a longer-term trend. The percentage of Americans reporting that religion is very important in their life has fallen from 75% in 1952 to 47% in 2025. The same Gallup survey found that religion’s importance varies between different groups. Young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 have the lowest figure at 33%, while persons 65 years and older have the highest figure at 58 percent; religion is very important for 51 percent of females compared with 43 percent of males, and very important for persons with an income in the lower third (52%), compared with persons in the upper third (39%).

Shrinking church congregations provide further evidence of the decline of organized religion in America. According to a study published by the Lewis Theological Seminary in Washington D.C., between 2000 and 2019 median attendance at Episcopal Churches dropped from 80 to 51, while for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America the equivalent figures were 100 and 60. For Catholics, data from the General Social Survey indicate that in the early 1970s, about 34% of all those raised Catholic were attending Mass weekly (or more often) when they were surveyed as adults. By 2002, the number had fallen to 20% and in 2022 the figure was 11%.

In short, fewer persons attend religious services on a regular basis. The remainder of this article considers the ramifications of this trend for churches in the Upper Peninsula. Prior to this analysis the most popular denomination for each U.P. county is identified using the U.S. Religion Census, a once-per-decade dataset (compiled by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies) that reports the number of congregations and adherents in American faith groups.

Major Denominations in the Upper Peninsula

Each county was classified according to which of the following traditions: Black Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical (e.g. Southern Baptist, Assembly of God), Latter-Day Saints (LDS), and Mainline Protestants (e.g. Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian) had the highest percentage of adherents, as measured by the number of individuals who regularly attend a specific congregation in 2020. At the national level, Evangelicalism is the dominant Christian denomination in 62 percent of rural counties. In Michigan, 47 counties are classified as Evangelical, 33 as Catholic and 3 as Mainline Protestant. Within the Upper Peninsula, Mackinac and Alger counties are classified as Evangelical, while Ontonagon and Keweenaw are classified as Mainline Protestant and the remaining counties Catholic (Table 1). Delta, Menominee and Schoolcraft counties have the highest percentages of Catholics, while the percentages for Mainline Protestant Churches are consistently lower than their Catholic counterparts, with the exception of Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties. These patterns reflect the historic settlement patterns of different European groups who constructed places of worship after their arrival in the region. During the Keweenaw’s copper boom, Calumet, earned the moniker “city of churches” as Slovenians, Croatians, Poles, French Canadians and Italians all built their “own” Catholic churches, while Norwegians, Finns and Swedes built Lutheran churches.

Table 1
Religious Affiliations in 2020 by County (% of religious adherents)

*Mainline Protestant

Source: U.S. Religion Census

Affiliation with Established Churches in the Upper Peninsula

The U.S. Religion Census compiles data on the percentage of each county’s population that are affiliated with a religious organization for each decade beginning in 1980, although it cautions that “data collection methods for religious bodies change over time,” which affects comparability. Despite this qualification, broad trends are clearly evident from the data (Table 2). Between 1980 and 2020 most U.P. counties (except Luce) experienced a decline in the percentage of their population affiliated with a religious organization, which mirrors the nationwide decline in the importance of religion in Americans’ lives. The biggest dropoffs occurred in Baraga, Gogebic and Schoolcraft counties. By 2020 only Delta and Schoolcraft counties had over 50 percent of their populations affiliated with a religious organization, while Keweenaw, Chippewa, and Alger had less than 30 percent.

Table 2
Percent of all Residents that are Affiliated with a Religious Organization, 1980–2020

Source: U.S. Religion Census

Consequences of Shrinking Congregations

Falling populations and shrinking congregations are nothing new for Upper Peninsula churches. On the Keweenaw Peninsula, Calumet’s sustained population decline from the 1920s onwards led to the amalgamation of six Catholic churches into two congregations in 1966. The merger between two Catholic congregations in the early 1970s led St. John the Baptist Catholic Church being vacated in Menominee. In Marquette, Trinity Lutheran Church on Ridge Street merged with Sion congregation in 1966 to form Redeemer Lutheran Church and eventually vacate the Ridge Street location. More recently, members of St. Marks Lutheran Church in Marquette voted in 2016 to close their church due to their aging congregation and lack of growth. When Iron River’s Wesley United Methodist Church closed in 2015 it listed average attendance at 22.

Once a church closes what happens to the building? If there is nothing distinctive about the building’s architecture another denomination may take it over, this is particularly the case for Evangelical churches. Alternatively, a new use for the building may be found. In Menominee, St John the Baptist Catholic Church was acquired by the County Historical Society and transformed into the Menominee Heritage Museum. In Calumet, St Anne’s Catholic Church was repurposed as the Keweenaw Heritage Center. St. Marks Lutheran Church in Marquette is now home to a photography company (Figure 1), while Trinity Lutheran Church on Ridge Street has been converted to apartments (Figure 2).

Finally, in what is an increasingly common nationwide phenomenon, a vacant church in Hyde, west of Escanaba, re-opened as The Church Brewery. Some churches which cannot be easily repurposed may remain vacant as is the case of St. Mary’s Assumption Catholic Church in Iron River which closed its doors in the 1980s and remains for sale. For vacant churches that are beyond repurposing, demolition is the only alternative as occurred to Ishpeming’s Lake Street Catholic Church in 2023 and all that remains is a vacant lot (Figure 3).

Conclusions

The role of organized religion in Americans’ lives is in long term decline, with attendance dropping precipitously for so-called mainstream churches. Shrinking attendance and membership means there is little money to pay for church operations (staff and upkeep) so mergers and closures become inevitable. Many of the region’s vacant churches with a good location have been transformed into apartments, businesses and museums, while others have been repurposed by a different denomination. But in areas of population decline, abandonment, and a loss of sense of place and the people who made the community is a more likely outcome.