There was one serious push for the Upper Peninsula becoming the state of Superior in the Michigan Legislature. The push was made by Dominic J. Jacobetti Sr. was was probably the most (in)famous Michigan politician ever; he served 40 years in the Michigan House of Representatives and died before term limits could move him out. Jacobetti pushed for U.P. statehood in the legislature, although polls conducted in Marquette and Ironwood suggested that Upper Peninsula residents did not want to become their own state. I did a fairly large research project on Jacobetti and a good portion of it was dedicated to his pushing the U.P. as the 51st state. I can add a bit about this later from my research paper which is well documented and backed by sources from the Northern Michigan University/Central Upper Peninsula Archives which contains a wealth of material about the subject. - An NMU PoliSci student