When I first started researching the early land transactions of the unincorporated village of Glen Arbor, I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but I certainly didn’t expect to discover that a woman would play a dominate role in the land market and that other women did most of the buying. Harriet Fisher, the wife of John Fisher, one of the early settlers of Glen Arbor, owned most of the land that was to become the village of Glen Arbor that we know today.
As the Annual Port Oneida Fair draws near on August 12-13, showcasing the fine cultural and physical preservation efforts in the picturesque Rural Historic District of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the dedicated volunteers of Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear (PHSB) are preparing for another annual ritual. On August 19-28, they will launch a third year of restoration and stabilization projects at North Manitou Island’s historic “Cottage Row,” a group of early 20th century dwellings that were built for and occupied by long-ago summer residents and visitors.
Sun seekers tanning their hides on Empire beach were suddenly transported back in history on the afternoon of Sunday, July 31, when the Saginaw Voyageurs arrived in a birch bark replica canoe. The Voyageurs wore costumes to resemble the pre-American Revolution French fur traders, who opened up trade routes between Great Lakes Native American communities and Montreal. They were concluding the first day of a weeklong journey that began in Frankfort and ended on Aug. 6 in Traverse City.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (National Lakeshore) Superintendent Dusty Shultz is pleased to announce that the 10th annual Port Oneida Rural Arts and Culture Fair will be held Aug. 12 and 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to the many popular demonstrations, animals and exhibits, the fair will be a zero-waste event, will feature a chicken dinner on Friday, and will end with an astronomy party on Saturday night to celebrate the milestone 10th year.
All the hot weather we’ve had led me to re-read the 19th century Boizard letters written during the winter time in Glen Arbor. Exploring how some early white settlers got through the cold, snowy winters here offered an instructive perspective on the heat. I also wanted to continue to mine the letters for references to the Civil War, as the Boizard letters offer many informative first-hand descriptions.
If a tree could be a person, then the mulberry tree shading the grassy bank behind Riverfront Pizza & Specialties in Glen Arbor would be a kindly grandmother, offering shelter beneath her outstretched arms, inviting children to climb in her lap, and giving treats to her visitors — at least for a couple of weeks each year.
Marietta Boizard, March 2, 1868, visiting Chicago, to Charles Fisher, her future husband, in Glen Arbor: “I have received Five very Pretty Valentines this year, but not one of them came from Glen Arbor.”
Many years have passed since Glen Arbor had antiques and collectibles available in town. But they will be back for one day, Saturday, Jul 23, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at The Cottage Antique Market. Midwest dealers from Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois will sell their antique and vintage goods in the Pine Patch at The Cottage Book Shop.
They don’t wear their sparkly Wonder Woman suits out in public, or leap tall buildings in a single bound, but the members of southern Leelanau County’s two well-known service clubs are definitely community superheroes. Both the Glen Lake Woman’s Club (GLWC) and the Glen Arbor Women’s Club offer a warm welcome to new members who are seasonal or year-round residents, provide community fellowship and enjoyable social and civic activities that greatly enhance the quality of life for the people of the Glen Lake area as a whole.
In this article I will continue to examine life during the Civil War through the first-hand accounts found in the fascinating Boizard letters, written between 1855-1888, and found in an old house in Glen Arbor. My focus here is on the letters written to and from Mr. John Oliver Boizard, who lived in Chicago from 1864 until his death in 1870, while his wife, Eleanor, and daughter, Marietta, lived in the woods across from the northern shore of Fisher Lake.