thought.”

Now, Sugar Island’s lone bar, the Hilltop, would be the last stop of the road trip, a fitting ending since it was a bar that his dad loved. Whenever Randy tired of all the places to drink in downtown Soo, where everyone knew him, he could hop on the ferry and vanish from the world for a while.

Sugar Island is best known because in 1945, Chase Osborn, a former Michigan governor (1911-13) with property on the island and the only Michigan governor ever from the U.P., launched a campaign to locate the proposed headquarters for the United Nations here. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers even drew up plans featuring an airport, docks and a skyscraper. It wasn’t enough to beat New York City, though. The ex-governor, whodied not long after, is buried on the island in what’s now a 3,200-acre nature preserve maintained by the University of Michigan.

At the Hilltop, the names of its patrons over the years have been carved with knives deep into the wood rail. Hundreds of $1 bills are tacked to the ceiling, yellowed from the days of indoor smoking. Elderly houseplants droop from pots in the window. A stage stands ready for a local band called Three and a Half Men, so named because one of its four members lost his legs. And once again, black-and-white photos on the walls document the history of the island.

It’s the quintessential Upper Peninsula dive bar. And the drinkers here cherish it.

“What makes it special? Solitude,” said 62-year-old Mike Williams, a Sugar Island