More than a dozen states are split between two zones, including neighboring Indiana. Michigan isn’t the only state with more than one time zone. Since 1973, most of Michigan has been in the Eastern Zone, except for those western counties in the Upper Peninsula. However, federal law allows counties to request a change in their time zones, the DOT says. Department of Transportation (DOT), which oversees the country’s time zones.īefore 1883, local communities set their own “sun times,” resulting in a confusing patchwork of 100 or so local times around the country, the DOT says. The nation’s time zone system was adopted in 1883 to help the U.S. So keeping everybody in the region on the same time makes life and work schedules easier. The shipyard is in Marinette but draws half of its workforce from Michigan, Boudreau said. The largest of several local employers is Fincantieri Marinette Marine, which builds ships for the U.S. “We’re a border community - you just go over the bridge,” Boudreau said. The cities also have a shared economy, says Jacqueline Boudreau, executive director of the chamber.

The cities, built on opposite banks of the Menominee River, are so closely tied that they share the Marinette Menominee Area Chamber of Commerce. The city of Menominee, the county seat of Menominee County, sits just across the state border from Marinette, Wisconsin. “They love the extra daylight” for outdoor activities. “In Ontonagon, from a tourist standpoint, they enjoy the heck out of it,” Nemacheck said. Ontonagon is in the Eastern Time Zone, but so far west that in the summer the sun doesn’t set until 10 or 10:30 p.m., he said. that aren’t in the Central Time Zone have some advantages. “If you look at it geographically, everything west of Escanaba should be in the Central Time Zone,” he said.Ĭounties in the western U.P. Two times zones make sense, he said, given how far west parts of the Upper Peninsula are. They are startled to find out there are two time zones in Michigan,” he said. “The tourists, people in our own state, don’t know it. They are closely tied to business communities in Wisconsin, he said, and he is unaware of any effort to pull them into the Eastern Zone.Īlthough the four counties have been in the Central Zone for decades, Nemacheck says that still comes as a shock to many people. Tom Nemacheck, executive director of the Upper Peninsula Travel and Recreation Association in Iron Mountain, said he thinks the four western counties should stay in Central Time Zone. “Oftentimes, people just forget,” Loper said. She said when problems do occur, it’s usually when meeting with people from counties in the Eastern Time Zone.

“On a daily basis, it doesn’t affect things much,” Loper said. Gogebic County is farther west than any other county in the state and thus deeper into the Central Time Zone than any other Michigan county.įor the most part, living in the Central Zone is just a fact of life, says Charly Loper, the city manager of Bessemer, the county seat of Gogebic County. “It’s crazy, but it works,” Zanon said with a laugh. On the flip side, his commute home takes hardly any time at all. Eastern Time, she said, he has to get up at 3:30 a.m. Zanon said her husband works in Escanaba, which is an hour’s drive away and in the Eastern Time Zone. But there can be challenges for county residents working outside their time zone.

“They get here and say, ‘When did it change?’”įor many people in the Iron Mountain area, living in the Central Time Zone makes doing business with neighboring Wisconsin much easier, she said. Visitors to the area, however, “are always surprised by the time change,” Zanon said. “It’s been that way for a very long time,” says Lynda Zanon, director of the Dickinson Area Chamber Alliance in Iron Mountain, the county seat of Dickinson County and only a short drive from Wisconsin. So those four Michigan counties opted to be in that hour-earlier time zone to stay in sync with their Wisconsin neighbors. While most of Michigan is in the Eastern Time Zone, four counties on the western edge of the Upper Peninsula are not.ĭickinson, Gogebic, Iron and Menominee counties all border Wisconsin, which is in the Central Time Zone. LANSING - If you drive far enough west through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it’s possible to literally travel back in time. Spartan Newsroom - News and information from student journalists at the Michigan State University School of Journalism About the Michigan State University School of Journalism.MSU School of Journalism Code of Ethics.MSU journalism COVID-related reporting guidelines.Michigan Chile Investigative Journalism Program.

What is the time zone in wisconsin