Entries by editor

Collaboration between Glen Arbor Township, Leelanau School revives tennis courts

For years, the tennis courts at the Leelanau School, the private boarding school north of Glen Arbor, sat unused, succumbing to cracks and weeds. High schools stars such as Brian Munroe, Jason Petty and internationally ranked Danish exchange student Dan Valbak once swung their rackets here, and the school routinely competed in the high school state championship. But last decade the Leelanau School all but eliminated its sports program.

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Shh, Don’t Tell at Center Gallery

Grand Rapids artist Holly Sturges takes viewers on a tour of her secret painting places in “Shhh! Don’t Tell,” new plein air landscapes on view from July 10-16 at Center Gallery, 6023 S. Lake St., in Glen Arbor. A reception to open the exhibition is from 6-8 p.m.

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D.H. Day’s kingdom

The area in Northern Michigan which is now the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was first inhabited by Native Americans, who lived in small settlements around rivers and lakes. But the village known today as Glen Haven was not a major site of Indian settlement. It didn’t even attract much attention from European settlers until 1857, nearly a decade after the Leelanau mainland had begun to be inhabited. By that time, the opening of the Erie Canal had greatly increased steamship traffic on the Great Lakes, with vessels carrying freight and passengers from Buffalo to Chicago. The need for wooding stations to fuel the ships that passed through the shipping lane reached an all time high, and in 1857, C.C. McCarty, the brother-in-law of Glen Arbor pioneer John E. Fisher, recognized the potential of the Sleeping Bear Bay area to become a major refueling station and a thriving settlement.

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Center Gallery presents Ford’s plein air

Grand Rapids artist Randi Ford paints “This Land,” a series of acrylic and gouache landscapes of Northern Michigan. This show of plein air and studio paintings opens July 3 at Center Gallery, 6023 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor. A reception to open the exhibition is 6-8 p.m.

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Walking the Lake Michigan beach — a public right, or trespassing?

It’s common knowledge that the public can walk along the Lake Michigan shoreline. You can walk it anywhere on public property. That means public road ends, or the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The question is: how far from the water’s edge can a person legally walk along private property? This is an important issue, since about 70 percent of Michigan’s “third coast” is privately owned. The answer is unclear, because neither courts in Michigan nor in other Great Lakes states have offered a clear and consistent answer.

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Manitou Music Festival announces summer concert series

The Manitou Music Festival presents exciting and diverse concerts featuring national and regional performers in idyllic outdoor & family friendly locations. The Festival has been a summer tradition in Glen Arbor since the mid 1990s. “Jack Conners the producer of concerts at the charming Studio Stage is continuing the tradition of a rich mix of musical genres including Celtic, Americana, Indie Folk, Jazz, Bluegrass and Alternative Rock,” said Glen Arbor Art Association director Peg McCarty. “It promises to be one of the most memorable musical line-ups that we have ever had.” The Festival volunteer committee has also booked exciting musicians for the Dune Climb and The Homestead venues.

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Paddling the Cedar River

We got to the boat launch at Victoria Creek Community Park in Cedar and put in, and I settled back for a lazy ride down the slow-moving waterway, eagerly anticipating the flash of a kingfisher or a glimpse of a turtle sunning itself on a log. But as we began to move downstream, it was neither of those that grabbed my attention, but the melodious sound of polka music.

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Northport Community Band concert kicks off Manitou Music Festival

The perennially popular Northport Community Band, conducted by Don Wilcox, will perform patriotic favorites on Friday, July 3 at 7 p.m. on the Old Schoolhouse lawn in Glen Arbor. The concert kicks off this year’s Manitou Music Festival.

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Who’s the boss: the people’s July 4 parade

Meet Stan Brubaker: Glen Havenite, husband to Jo, father of four children, dog rescuer. There may be more to his CV, but not this: Under no circumstances is Stan Brubaker the boss of the Glen Arbor July 4th parade. “Nobody has a title,” he said. “Nobody’s in charge.”

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Old Settlers Flag Raising, 10 a.m. on Fourth of July

From staff reports The Glen Lake Woman’s Club will once again sponsor the annual Fourth of July Flag Raising at Old Settlers Park on the southeastern shore of Big Glen Lake. The Woman’s Club has organized this patriotic community tradition every year since 1970. Hundreds of local residents always kick off their holiday here. The […]

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