Leelanau Christian Neighbors is proud to announce a significant expansion of its commitment to addressing the critical affordable housing shortage in Leelanau County with the purchase of two homes in Maple City. These acquisitions will provide much-needed long-term rental opportunities at below-market rates for local residents.
Finding housing in the area has long been a challenge, and it only seems to be getting worse. In response, Housing North is implementing the Housing Exchange Platform, a means for those seeking rentals and those who may have available housing to connect. “It just launched,” says Housing North executive director Yarrow Brown of the effort. The Housing Exchange is a free, community-based tool to be used by both employers seeking housing for their workers and for individuals, connecting them with rental properties, whether that is homes, apartments, ADUs or simply rooms in a home. The platform grew out of a similar effort by the Sleeping Bear Gateways Council. The Leelanau County non-profit recognized the need for rental housing was acute and getting worse. Between low inventories of home for sale and for rent, increasing prices and the trend for homes to be used for more profitable short-term rentals, the Sleeping Bear Gateways Council formed in 2018 to focus on challenges and opportunities in the communities around the National Lakeshore.
The 13th annual Port Oneida Run—an event of the National Park’s nonprofit partner Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear—will take place on Saturday, August 2. The run starts and ends at the big red barn and lawn area at the Olsen Farm/Port Oneida Farms Heritage Center, 3164 W. Harbor Hwy, (M-22) Maple City, MI, just four miles north of Glen Arbor.
Earlier this year, a group of friends asked Leelanau County writer Stephanie Mills to speak at their regular winter gathering, whose theme was “Pleasure, Presence, and Play.” It was some wild genius on their part to redirect our focus from the cruel spectacle unfolding in the nation’s capital, and other portents of collapse, and to turn our attention to conviviality, wrote Mills. (It was also fairly playful to ask a depressive pessimist to address such a lively theme.) The following essay is derived from that talk.
Remembering and preserving the past can mean many things. In the case of the Leelanau County Poor Farm Barn, it means… listening to music? That’s right. A series of three summer concerts will take place at the historic site across from Myles Kimmerly Park outside Maple City, beginning July 30 with Rita Hosking and Sean Feder with Andre Villoch. The shows are part of an effort by the Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society, the Leelanau Historical Society and the gardening non-profit Row-by-Row (formerly Buckets of Rain) to generate interest, and eventually funds, for restoring and revitalizing the barn.
The Glen Lake Community Library in Empire will host a presentation about a proposed redevelopment of the historic Empire Hardware property on Thursday, July 24, at 7 pm. Dylan Tull of Biom Design will be share his team’s vision for the property, and gather vital community input. Their proposed mixed-use development is intended to revitalize the long-vacant property, providing a variety of services and attractions.
As principal cellist of the Traverse City Philharmonic, Crispin Campbell plays to audiences ready for music by Brahms, Bach and Beethoven. That’s not what the audience will hear at the July 24 concert at The Homestead. Campbell and his cohorts, pianist Steve Stargardt and dobro player Joe Wilson, will be playing music familiar to fans of BB King, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Keith Jarrett, or down-home country music. Most of all with the improvisational flair and approach of jazz. Campbell says he started exploring improvisation around the year 2000. “I began creating my own music and teaching improvisation for string players,” he explains. “I’m really driven to not play the same way twice. That’s intriguing.”
Nikki Rothwell didn’t grow up with aspirations to be the National Cherry Queen. She was too interested in bugs. Nevertheless, the longtime director and educator at the Michigan State University Extension Office in Leelanau County found herself waving to the crowd as an honored participant in the DTE Energy Foundation Cherry Royale Parade. No tiara, though—instead, “I did get (to wear) a red jacket, like the Masters,” she says with a laugh, as winners of that golf tournament receive a green sport coat. Rothwell was honored as the Cherry Industry Person of the Year at the 2025 National Cherry Festival.
Cherries are the calling card of Northern Michigan. They represent our home, just as citrus speaks for Florida, or as lobsters lobby for Maine. Here in the North, orchards define our landscape, U-Picking is a cherished tradition and a slice of pie means “I love you.” But cherry farmers these days face a perfect storm of challenges, from environmental to political. Erratic swings in temperature caused by climate change threaten cherry buds in the spring; cheap foreign imports have undercut prices that U.S. farmers can expect to earn; workers needed to harvest crops have grown scarce due to unaffordable housing prices and restrictive national immigration policies; and the local real estate frenzy has disincentivized growers from staying on their land when they can sell their orchards for millions.
Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate features two special pop-ups within its gelateria in Empire this summer. One sells Miriam Teran’s Kichwa artisan wares from her indigenous community in northern Ecuador. The presence of Miriam’s crafts emphasizes the company’s connection to Ecuador, from which Grocer’s Daughter sources all its chocolate. The other pop-up, Adriana’s Kitchen, features traditional food from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, including steak and chicken tacos, tostadas and burritos, served with rice, beans and salsa. “Our intent behind the pop-ups is to uplift these incredible women and to try new, fun (and delicious) things at Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate,” said Grocer’s Daughter co-owner Jody Hayden.