Entries by editor

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Leland Public School embraces North Manitou school project

Here’s the story of Leland Public School reclaiming and reviving its school on North Manitou Island, which Abby Chatfield wrote in our August 11 edition of the Glen Arbor Sun. The first school on North Manitou was made of logs in 1895 and held 36 students. A new school was built in 1907 with a wood frame and front porch but was shut down in the 1940s as the island’s permanent population dwindled. Decades later, when Leland Public School discovered they owned this one-acre property, considered the home of Leland School District’s first school, all that still existed was the decaying framework of a one-room schoolhouse. Fast forward more than 25 years. Nick Seguin, a first and second grade teacher for Leland since 2009 who graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Natural Resources, spends his summers working as a guide for Manitou Island Transit. While hiking on North Manitou Island, Seguin came across the old school site, recognizing it by a crumbling foundation. Intrigued, he began to study plat maps and rediscovered the property deed, realizing that the land still belonged to the Leland School District.

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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visits Sleeping Bear Dunes

United States Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Thursday, Aug. 11, before she traveled north to Pellston to meet with survivors of Federal Indian Boarding Schools. At Sleeping Bear, she toured Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, visited the Dune Climb, and sites at Glen Haven including the Sleeping Bear Inn, the cannery and Lake Michigan. Haaland’s visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes was the second by a U.S. Secretary of the Interior. In June 1998, Secretary Stewart Udall spoke at an emotional standing-room-only public gathering at the Sleeping Bear Dunes—the Park he helped establish.

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Glen Arbor galleries hold Art After Hours

Nine Glen Arbor galleries and artists studios are keeping the night light burning this summer as part of Art After Hours. Art After Hours takes place one last time on August 17, from 5-7 pm. It offers visitors a chance to take a self-guided walking tour of galleries located in Glen Arbor’s art district – a five-block area from Lake Street to M-22 to M-109 West.

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to discuss clean water during Aug. 17 event at Cherry Republic

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel will lead a conversation on clean water at Cherry Republic’s Glen Arbor campus on Wednesday, Aug. 17, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.

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Remembering John Peppler, storied Glen Arbor realtor, Sugar Loaf skier, Vietnam veteran

John Peppler, a fixture in Glen Arbor for decades and an affable realtor with Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors, passed away on August 9 at age 75. He had spent months at Munson Hospital in Traverse City after contracting a tick-borne disease. 

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Investing in clean energy, from Washington, D.C., to Leelanau

The U.S. Senate has passed its historic climate change legislation, and the House of Representatives is expected to soon follow suit and send to President Biden to sign the bill. The political victory comes not a moment too soon, with a rapidly warming planet striking communities with one climate-related disaster after another. Leelanau County, too, is enjoying the momentum of the clean energy movement. Earlier this summer, Leelanau Energy launched its “Energize Leelanau Challenge” initiative to locate clean energy or energy efficiency projects in the county that are shovel-ready and that benefit communities, and help fund them with seed money totaling between $250 and $15,000 per project.

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Port Oneida Fair features plays by Anne-Marie Oomen

Prolific local poet, memoirist, essayist and playwright Anne-Marie Oomen creates an enduring sense of place and history. From her memoirs about growing up in Oceana County (100 miles south of Leelanau), to poems that capture the magic of the Sleeping Bear Dunes and the western Michigan lakeshore, to history plays that re-create local characters and bygone times, Oomen’s work is always infused with images of the hills and the forests, the barns and the orchards, and the dirt and the compost of her native land. This summer two of Oomen’s history pieces will be performed as part of the Port Oneida Fair, sponsored by Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear and the Port Oneida Fair Committee with a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council.

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You know you’re a Michigander when …

“Nearly four decades have passed since I first set foot in northern Michigan,” writes author Tim Mulherin in this humorous essay. “In that span of time, I’ve advanced from agog newbie to repeat tourist to seasonal visitor and property owner. Nonetheless, throughout my time Up North, I’ve noticed there are certain common traits in being a card-carrying, fully certified northern Michigander, and they have nothing to do with possessing a driver’s license issued by the Michigan Department of Motor Vehicles.”

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Port Oneida Fair returns to Sleeping Bear Dunes

The Port Oneida Fair returns to the Port Oneida Rural Historic District of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Friday and Saturday, August 12-13, following a two-year COVID-19 hiatus. Beginning at 10 a.m. each day, and running until 4 p.m., visitors are invited to step back in time to actively experience life as it was in this once active community of robust farms of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The fair promotes the preservation of rural traditional skills, crafts, landscapes, and communities of the Upper Great Lakes Region through education and artistic expression.

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Harbormaster Edie Aylsworth at the helm in Suttons Bay Marina

The Suttons Bay Marina and Park is located just steps east of the engaging village of Suttons Bay on West Grand Traverse Bay. Here, where the attraction to water means just about everything to visitors and locals alike, you will find Harbor Master, Edie Aylsworth overseeing the ongoing operations of this 174-slip marina. It is a highly responsible position, and one she has been entrusted with well. As Harbor Master, Edie is the person officially designated to enforce the regulations of the harbor, the one who makes final decisions as to ensure the safety of navigation in nearby waters, the security of the harbor itself, and the correct operation of the marina’s facilities. It really can be compared to the nautical version of an air traffic controller, and one just as responsible for keeping peoples’ lives safe.

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