Abandoned Glen Arbor Township Cemetery to be resurrected, with help of Glen Lake 8th graders

By Linda Alice Dewey

Sun contributor

The former Glen Arbor Township Cemetery, located in the backwoods behind Boonedocks, has been buried in a tangle of trees since the brutal storm of August 2015. The place is dear to me because my first book, Aaron’s Crossing, began its life and death saga when I sensed a ghost there.

From my first visit, this site has been riddled with mysteries. Why does the ground undulate up and down in rows? Why was the original path leading there so wide? Why it so far off the main drag? Why are only some graves in the small central fenced-in area? Why is one lone grave so far from the others, as if it were a castout? 

Ninety-three-year-old Leonard Thoreson lives across from the graveyard area. He lived at Thoreson Farm on Port Oneida until he was 27, when he moved to Glen Arbor. His father, who died in 1977, told him about the cemetery. He spoke with me in an October interview that included local historians Barbara Siepker and Andrew White.

“Last one buried there was Trumbull,” Thoreson stated. John Trumbull (1845-1927) lies inside the fenced enclosure with, it turns out, the rest of the Trumbull family from that era, including two Civil War veterans. At least three others lie nearby. 

“I understand that there were a lot buried there with no headstones, no nothing,” he declared. This explains the rows of depressions in the ground. “Somebody would die, and Fisher would put the name on a shingle, and the date, and stick it in the ground, and that was history.” This is most probably Frank Fisher, who ran a shingle mill on the Crystal River where Crystal Harbor Marina is now. Thoreson stated that, over time, the shingle “rotted off, and that was it.” 

The diagonal trail that led to the cemetery until it was blocked by the storm, he explained, was once the main road. It ran from Big Glen Lake through the stone gates at M-22 and Forest Haven Road, then cut through the woods on a diagonal to the stone gates at M-109 across from the Sylvan Inn, then straight down to the Glen Arbor dock. Before M-22, Thoreson said, this was the main road. It was then called “Day Forest Road,” which was changed in the 1970s.  

Glen Arbor Township Trustee John Peppler lives just west of the cemetery.  “The first time I saw the cemetery,” Peppler writes, “was in the early 1950s, when my grandmother took me for a walk along the old railroad bed that runs past the cemetery.” 

From what records we can find so far, the first grave in the cemetery was dug in 1879 on the acre of land deeded to the township by Dr. William Walker, whose property extended past the cranberry bog east of the current M-22, next to his home. That means this was the township cemetery for nearly half a century.

Abandoned, then buried

Thoreson remembers when the township decided to stop caring for the cemetery, noting again that the last burial was in 1927. “I was on the town board at the time,” he said. “Nobody was taking care of that cemetery. It was somewhere in the ’60s, when Dex Seeburger, [Frank] Basch and myself were on the township board. I cleaned that cemetery up, and cut all the brush, because that [land] goes all the way to Forest Haven Road.” The decision was made in the ’60s to stop caring for it. “The township paid me for cleaning it up, and then they abandoned it.” Nothing has been done with it or to it by the township since. 

Peppler concurs. “My best recollection of the history,” he states, “was that Glen Arbor Township no longer maintained the cemetery after the Township, under agreement with Empire Township, decided to mutually maintain Maple Grove Cemetery on M-109.” 

The National Park Service (NPS) took over that area in the 1970s. The cemetery records, however, seem to have been misplaced. In 2003-04, I was fact-checking Aaron’s Crossing and asked township clerk Bonnie Quick to see the records. She told me that the NPS had requested all records, and Glen Arbor sent them over with everything else.  

For a long time, the NPS did keep the trail cleared of downed trees, and individuals from the community independently cleared foliage and soil covering some of the flat graves. Peppler and others planted small flags at veterans’ markers on Memorial Day or left painted rocks on the stones to indicate that someone, at least, was there to honor and remember them. 

That was fairly constant, until the August 2015 storm made entry nearly impossible. After that, only the diehard and persistent could make it in anymore.

Community action

I contacted Tom Ulrich, Deputy Superintendent of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, in 2017 about the situation. He told me that, although clearing the cemetery was a priority for them, it was down on the list. The park had its hands full. 

It was distressing to envision family processions to the cemetery a century ago, with the living, although grieving, confident that this place would be maintained by the township. And now, this? These people deserve better. 

Several nonprofit historical organizations in the area were supportive. Susan Pocklington, of Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear agreed that their organization could serve as a fiduciary outlet should we need to raise funds and write grants. 

Last May, I met with the National Lakeshore’s Roads, Trails, and Grounds supervisor Dan Ostrowski, publisher and historian Siepker, and Pocklington to see what it would take. Ostrowski had never been there before and was awestruck. In spite of the damage and destruction, this spot in the middle of the woods emits serenity.

In October, arborist Matt Haro from Parshall Tree Care Experts and Ranger Jesse Thomas from Ostrowski’s department met me at the site to establish a cost for a fundraising goal. Haro, impressed with the sacredness of the place amidst the devastation, offered to donate his own personal time to the project. A few days later, he delivered the news that the company would do this project free of charge, including clearing the new path and possibly the small central area where the tombstones are, all before the end of the year.  

Glen Lake School embraces history project

In addition, two years ago, I approached Melissa Okerlund, social science/history teacher at Glen Lake Middle School. She was especially moved by the fact that four Civil War veterans are buried there. Last month, we met with Glen Lake Secondary principal Stephanie Long, who embraced the project. 

This is what will happen. Eighth graders will adopt-a-grave at the cemetery after an initial visit this fall, where they will get a feel for its current state. Over the winter, they will choose a grave and research their individual, aided by a team of historians and classroom visits from local historical organizations. In the meantime, Parshall Tree Experts will go in and clear the way. Come spring, the students will visit the cemetery again, clean it up, and tend their individual’s grave. The project will culminate in a ceremony sometime around Memorial Day to which the public will be invited.

Only the beginning

This will become an annual project for the school. Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear has agreed to instigate a cemetery cleanup worker bee with the 8th graders each year in the fall or spring. Grave restoration is slated for the 2020-21 school year. A Readers’ Theater production of Aaron’s Crossing combining students and community theater actors is also in the works. More clearing will be scheduled. 

Then, 2021-22 may see ground penetrating sonar brought in to determine where bodies are laid. After that, markers. Finally, the Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society has graciously offered to serve as fiduciary for a Michigan historic marker for the site, for which we will need to raise approximately $3,000 once someone offers to spearhead that project. 

All kinds of people and organizations are coming forward with unanticipated ideas and offers of help. This wonderful community is stepping up to save this cemetery and the history of these people, who, like some of us lucky ones now, once lived in this beautiful area.