Local jeweler Pam Meteer Peplinski, who will be showing and selling her work at the Glen Arbor Arts Center in August with the Leelanau Women artists, has just about the deepest Leelanau County roots a non-native can have.
Three years ago, on Aug. 2, 2015, a derecho storm with hurricane-force, straight-line winds pummeled Glen Arbor, destroying forests, knocking out power and changed the landscape for a generation. Then the cleanup, the rebuilding and the landscaping began. For her work on the “Bitter Sweet Lane” property on Glen Lake, local landscaper and gardener extraordinaire Cre Woodard recently won an award from the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association (MNLA), which honors “those in the green industry that have demonstrated excellence, professionalism and responsible environmental standards.”
Glen Arbor Sun editor, Jacob Wheeler, was seated at the next table at Leelanau Coffee Roasters one sunny Monday recently with his shoes placed by his bare feet; a reminder of another famous Glen Arbor icon, who hardly ever wears shoes, inside or outside—Cherry Republic owner, Bob Sutherland.
Author Larry B. Massie will offer a Michigan history program at the Leland Township Library and Leelanau Historical Society on Wednesday, Aug. 1 at 4 p.m.
When Kasson township was organized in 1865, it was named in honor of Pam Peplinski’s great-great grandfather, and its eldest resident, Kasson Freeman, Jr., who was then 46. Many years later, the annual “Old Settlers Picnic,” held at the beginning of each August in Burdickville at Old Settlers Park, originally commemorated Kasson Freeman’s Aug. 3 birthday, which was coincidentally also the date our first white settlers, Mr. and Mrs. John E. Fisher, landed on Leelanau’s coast in 1854. They decided to celebrate with a picnic, then made it an annual affair.
The Empire Area Heritage Group will hold a program at the Glen Arbor Town Hall on July 31 at 7:30 p.m. about the Sinking of the Dorsey boat The Rescue. Popcorn and water will be available, and donations will support the Empire Area Historical Museum.
Learn about the history of the area through bike, car, horse and wagon tours, and several programs offered by Historic Sleeping Bear, a partner group of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Bike Tours through the Port Oneida Rural Historic District will be offered on Thursday mornings at 9:30 a.m., and Sunday afternoons from 2-4 p.m.
If you were at least 12 years old in 1981, lived in the United States, and were hooked up to major media, you surely heard about it. After a decade’s hiatus, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel agreed to reunite for a free New York City concert to save Central Park, which was in danger of being closed. In an effort to save it, the city put on a series of concerts.
In the shade of the old locusts at lovely Dorsey Park on Little Glen Lake lies the original Dorsey cabin. Built around 1860, it’s one of the oldest structures, if not the oldest building, in Leelanau County. On any given day, from April to October, you might find the cabin door open. There, you’ll see an 83-year-old man working at his scroll saw, creating beautiful, ornate items. He gives away everything he makes.
Join the Leelanau Historical Society for its next program, Wrecks and Rescues of the Manitou Passage, on Wednesday, July 18, at 4 p.m. The Leelanau Historical Society is located at 203 E. Cedar Street in Leland.