Entries by editor

Crystal River culvert replacement project resumes

GTEC USA will resume its Crystal River culvert replacement work on June 15 at the crossing near the corner of M-22 and County Road 675, close to The Mill. This project will include removal of the existing culverts and replacement with a 65-foot steel bridge by the end of August. CR 675 will be closed to thru traffic from M-22 to S Westman Road, and rerouted for the duration of the project. Two previous Crystal River culvert projects were completed last year.

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Glen Arbor Arts Center brings Kodak Quartet as Musicians-in-Residence

The Glen Arbor Arts Center is delighted to present the Kodak Quartet as their Musicians-in-Residence from June 10–21. Presented through a partnership between the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Manitou Music Series and Interlochen Public Radio’s Sound Garden Project, this initiative focuses on planting classical music in unexpected places. The Kodak Quartet will bring its electrifying, genre-defying sound to the Glen Arbor area.

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Habitat holds New Waves phase two celebration

Six Habitat families are already enjoying the benefits of homeownership in the New Waves community. Beyond expectations, the New Wave homeowners have developed meaningful relationships and created a stronger community than simple structures can build. Visit our website, GlenArbor.com, for a link to hear their story. The second phase of seven additional Habitat homeownership houses are being built now. Habitat for Humanity would like to invite the community to celebrate at an old-fashioned ice cream social on Thursday, June 12, at 4 pm with an opportunity to learn about and tour these additional New Waves homes.

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“Brutal work” shoveling sand. Goodbye, Pierce Stocking overlook

Millions of visitors to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore remember the iconic wooden viewing platform a short walk from the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive stop #9, which was removed by Park staff last month after shifting sands eroded the platform’s support. Thousands have taken photos since the full platform was installed in 1986. Some ran down the steep cliff toward Lake Michigan. A few couldn’t get back up and paid hefty fines to be rescued by rangers and first responders. Tom Mountz, a former maintenance worker who retired from Sleeping Bear Dunes in 2018 after 43 years on the job, remembers shoveling sand when the platform was installed nearly 40 years ago. Lots of sand. “Several times a week, first thing in the morning, a crew of four-six of us needed to shovel the boardwalk to #9. From a few inches of sand to a foot or more. Brutal work. But we were all 25-30 years old. Eventually a new, improved boardwalk was built and properly sized so a tractor could remove 90 percent of the sand.”

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Confessions of a recovering rockhound

It’s really no surprise that the Great Lakes Rocks & Minerals Facebook page has almost than 340,000 members, writes Tim Mulherin. First-time visitors to Lake Michigan, especially here along Leelanau County’s magnificent stretch of the big lake’s beach, are drawn to the stones, fossils and beach glass offered up with each wave that lands ashore. Even those who are not geologically inclined can’t ignore the eons-old rocky scatterings of water-glossed beauty at their feet. The photographs that especially get my attention are those displaying dozens of beach stones arranged for a self-congratulatory photo shoot. Typically, I’m moved to pose a single suggestive question: Catch and release? It often garners several laughing emojis. And yet… I’m serious. For years, my wife has discouraged me from collecting geological keepsakes for my ever-expanding collection: Petoskey stones, Charlevoix stones, agates, chain coral, and crinoids being my favorites. She habitually instructs me to return them before we decamp from the beach and head home.

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Ice Storm Farm Relief Fund launched for northern Michigan Farmers

A dozen counties in northern Lower Michigan experienced a disastrous ice storm that lasted from March 28-30. The storm is long gone but the damage remains, and farmers need help. Reports from local farms have been staggering: entire plantings and livestock lost, miles of fencing down, greenhouses collapsed, maple forests for syruping destroyed, debris hindering future farming efforts. With farmer livelihoods under threat, Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology, and the Local Food Alliance have partnered to launch the Ice Storm Farm Relief Fund to help the region’s farmers recover. Click here to read more and access the GoFundMe Ice Storm Farm Relief Fund.

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Celebrating songs of Leelanau: Laura Hood’s “Eddy Up”

Our story series celebrating songs inspired by Leelanau County and the Sleeping Bear Dunes continues with Laura Hood’s “Eddy Up,” which the retired music teacher and Cedar resident first wrote for The Leelanau School’s graduating class of 2000. For the past 25 years, Hood has performed “Eddy Up” as the benediction music at the school’s graduation ceremony, sending the graduating seniors off into the big wide world, and giving the families and school community a moment to reflect on the growth and pride of such an important transition in life.

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Sleeping Bear Dunes hosts National Trails Day Project

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore invites those interested in assisting the Park to join in a National Trails Day project on Saturday, June 7. Park Rangers will meet participants at the Shauger Hill Trailhead parking lot at 9 am and will conclude at noon. The project will put the finishing touches on this year’s cleanup of Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive’s Lake Michigan Overlook.

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Members Create at Glen Arbor Arts Center

An annual tradition returns. The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Members Create exhibition opens June 6 at 5 pm with a public reception featuring the work of 55 current GAAC members. A showcase of members’ talent, Members Create runs through August 7. The exhibit includes work in a wide range of media: paint to fiber, clay to metal.

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Spear your Asparagus in Empire

The Empire Asparagus Festival returns on Saturday, June 7. This day-long, quirky and unique festival includes a Kick-yer-Assparagus 5 km Fun Run Walk at 10 am, an asparagus recipe contest at noon at the Township Hall, asparagus eats with food vendors, local beers and music from noon-6 pm on closed-off Front St, an open house at the Empire Area Museum from 1-2 pm, the “Ode to Asparagus” poetry contest at 2 pm at the Glen Lake Community Library, a visit from “Miss Asparagus on Stilts” from 2-4 pm, and a Children’s Magic Show with Gordon Russ from 3-4 pm.

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