Since today is Indigenous People’s Day, the next installment in Community Conversations: Exploring What Matters to our Neighbors—a storytelling project of PerSisters and Leelanau Indivisible—features Eva Petoskey, a 73-year-old elder of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians who lives in Peshawbestown. “Without the earth, without the water, we’re nothing,” said Petoskey. “Without this planet, we’re nothing.”
On Friday, October 9, Sugar Loaf mountain will reopen to the public, this time under the stewardship of the Leelanau Conservancy. Once a popular ski resort until it fell on hard times and closed 26 years ago, Sugar Loaf sat idle while rumors swirled about who owned this crowned jewel of Michigan’s pinky finger—and whether sporting enthusiasts might ever frolic here again. Hope for Sugar Loaf’s future finally arrived in July 2025 when the Conservancy publicly announced that it was on the verge of raising $8 million to acquire the 285-acre property in the heart of Leelanau County. The Glen Arbor Sun enjoyed a sneak peek visit on a beautiful, blue-sky Sept. 10.
There is nothing like playing music with an accomplished and brilliant professional guitar player like Al Schackman, writes Sun editor Norm Wheeler. For the past 10 years I have been lucky enough to sit in with him, Chris Skellenger, and Patrick Niemisto every summer at Cherry Republic and Boonedocks in Glen Arbor, or at Ketch 22 in Arcadia, when Schackman visits Northern Michigan from his home near Wagon Mound, NM. Schackman is almost 93 years old, and he spent 43 amazing years as Nina Simone’s guitarist, music director, and confidant. He captures his remarkable musical life in his new memoir, “Me, My Guitar, & Nina Simone.”
In the mid-70s, a small group of friends decided to do something the beautify their little town of Glen Arbor, and in 1976 officially formed the Glen Lake Garden Club. Fifty years on, the Glen Lake Garden Club is still at it, though its membership and perspective have broadened. Today its roster numbers between 60 and 70 and the group pursues activities ranging from planting to working on environmental efforts such as removing invasive species and protecting native plants and animals.
Each year on September 11, Glen Arbor holds a memorial ceremony at the Fire Department at 8:30 am to commemorate the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. This year marks 25 years since the attacks. Glen Arbor resident Ted Peterson designed the memorial which sits in front of the Fire Department and features a beam that was salvaged from the wreckage at Ground Zero in New York City standing over a reflecting pool. That beam came from the Twin Towers and arrived in Glen Arbor in 2012.
The Leelanau Historical Society (LHS) is set to host the annual Leelanau Maritime History Festival on Saturday, Sept. 12. This well-loved festival, along with the equally loved 21st annual Wood Boats on the Wall, welcomes guests along the newly constructed boardwalk overlooking the Leland River.
The story of Jason Cross, Northport resident Rick Cross’ third great-grandfather, cannot be told without understanding the land he settled, Rick writes in this op-ed observing the nation’s semiquincentennial. That understanding requires confronting the history that made that land available. Jason Cross’ journey—from New Hampshire to Vermont, from Vermont to Western New York, and later to Michigan—follows the pattern of a nation moving ever westward. But beneath that familiar pioneer story is a deeper truth, one that came into focus only after Rick watched Ken Burns’s account of the Sullivan–Clinton Campaign in Episode Five of “The American Revolution.” That campaign reshaped the very ground Jason later called home.
Al Capone in Leelanau County?! According to local historian, journalist, and storyteller Larry Wakefield, “Even gangsters, it seems, have to take vacations,” he wrote in his book “Ernest Hemingway Fished Here.” In the mid-1990s, Rebecca Carlson and her friends were given the opportunity to walk with a property owner in the area along Lake Michigan, south of Duck Lake, to the ‘rumored’ cottages of gangster Al Capone, AKA Scarface. While there was heavy tree growth, they walked a two-track until coming upon a run-down, two-story cottage looking like it was going to fall into Lake Michigan. The front porch of the cottage sat precariously on the edge of a bluff overlooking the lake. They saw a partial structure that they were told was once a gun-tower. There were several other run-down outbuildings. The whole area was remote.
This year, State Savings Bank is celebrating its 130-year anniversary. This milestone marks more than a century of helping northern Michigan families and businesses reach their financial goals, while remaining a locally owned, independent community bank. The anniversary also comes with an unexpected twist. For many years, State Savings Bank was thought to have been founded in 1901. However, recently uncovered historical documents showed that the bank first opened its doors in Frankfort in 1896, making this year its 130th anniversary. The bank’s original name was Benzie County State Bank.
A visit to the Manitou Islands requires focus and strategy to navigate abundant poison ivy, black flies, mosquitos, and ticks. Although many fall in love at first sight with this pair of remote islands in northern Lake Michigan, part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, some may wonder what the draw is, as they disembark onto either of these windswept, buggy, and vegetation-dense islands, writes Abby Chatfield. With the Manitou Islands all but closed to visitors this year (unless you have a private boat)—as the National Lakeshore rebuilds the docks, we are reflecting on the Manitous with an ongoing series about experiences we’ve had on the islands.