Remembering a Cold War outpost in the middle of nowhere By Codi Yeager Sun contributor The quaint village of Empire is nestled in a valley between rolling hills to the north and south, with Lake Michigan lapping gently at its western shore. To the south looms a hill a bit taller than the rest, certainly […]
By Helen Westie Sun contributor When I was growing up in the 1930’s in southern Michigan, our family summer highlight was always a camping trip. Our favorite camp spot was the state park on Green Lake in Interlochen. It was an idyllic camp spot under stately pines near the beach and the shelter house. The […]
By Lois Beardslee Sun contributor We did not come over here on the Mayflower. We did not come up the Cumberland Gap. We did not follow Daniel Boone or De Soto or a black-robed priest. We came from the tops of tall trees that softly bent down and laid their boughs upon the earth so […]
By Helen Westie Sun staff writer These days, when half of a mobile home is transported down a highway on a flat bed truck, people rarely give it a second glance despite the ominous presence of an escort vehicle with a WIDE LOAD sign. But when an entire highway is taken up by a house […]
By Helen Westie Sun contributor In the midst of the Great Depression, American families harvested the cherry crops here in northern Michigan. They were the forerunners of the migrants who came much later. It was 1931 and I was 13 years old when my family camped in the orchard of huge cherry trees (the trees […]
By Susan Pocklington Sun contributor “We’ve been driving by this house for 20 years…we love it,” beams one woman who couldn’t be older than 35. A gentleman positions his tripod in front of the orange poppies blooming in the side yard. He grins at me and pauses. “I’ve taken many trips out here and have […]
By Kristin Seitz Sun contributor “A handful of pine seeds will cover mountains with the green majesty forests. I too will set my face to the wind and throw my handful of seed on high.” Fiona Macleod For generations people have thrown their own seeds to the wind in this beautiful region. With blood, sweat […]
By Lois Bearslee Michigan State University Press, published 2003 Lois Beardslee, author of Lies to Live By, is an accomplished Native American artist, teacher and writer in Leelanau County. She practices many traditional art forms, including birch bark biting, quillwork, and sweetgrass basketry, as well as painting and illustration. In publishing these excerpts from Lies […]
By Thomas Benn Sun contributor Nestled alongside the highway opposite the Apple Blossom Drive entrance to the Leelanau Orchards top-of-the-line real estate development stands the more modest former seasonal residence of the Chavez and Campos families. Their names are still legible on the doors of the small cinder-block quarters for Mexican migrant workers who were […]
By Anne-Marie Oomen Sun staff writer The following story, told from the perspective of the house, was read at a public reception held by Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear on Thursday, August 7 at the Olsen farm, located north of The Homestead on M-22 in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.