Sleeping Bear tourism creates $132 million for local economy

A new National Park Service report for 2011 shows that the 1,348,304 visitors to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore spent $132,774,000 in communities surrounding the park. This spending supported 2,347 jobs in the local area. “Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a wonderful place to learn about America’s story,” said Park Superintendent Dusty Shultz. “We attract visitors from across the U.S. and around the world who come here to experience the park and then spend time and money enjoying the services provided by our neighboring communities.”

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Federal funds help Heritage Trail expand to Port Oneida

The Detroit Free Press and other media outlets report that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded $100,000 to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to extend the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Heritage Trail an additional 4.75 miles.

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National Lakeshore to get federal wilderness approval

The Ticker and other media outlets reported earlier this month that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will receive the highest level of federal conservation protection for nearly 50 percent of our branch of the National Park Service.

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Real estate sales surge in Glen Arbor

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It wasn’t quite a “road to Damascus” epiphany, but Rob Serbin did find the road to Little Traverse Inn last year. The Glen Arbor realtor finally sold the restaurant on M-22 for the second time in seven years, this time to Scotsman Graeme Leask, after it sat idle on the market for 18 months. The sale was emblematic of Serbin’s monster year, which saw his company’s net sales surge by 250 percent. Numerous realtors in the Glen Arbor area shared that good fortune.

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Where has all the water gone?

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When the US Army Corps of Engineers measured Lake Michigan and Lake Huron water levels at the end of December, they discovered that the depth had receded to 576.15 feet above sea level — breaking the record for the previous all-time-low of 576.2 feet set in 1964. That’s not a record to celebrate. Numbers are complex and difficult to comprehend. But beaches along Sleeping Bear Bay offered more clarity, and sobering clarity at that. The shoreline has receded substantially from previous years, leaving behind a hard, rocky surface in places, and prompting widespread alarm.

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Sleeping Bear Dunes record-breaking visitor tally up 13.6 percent in 2012

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The numbers have been counted, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore reports that the pristine National Park in northwest-lower Michigan attracted 1,531,560 visitors in 2012 — a record-breaking tally by a wide margin. On the strength of the “Good Morning America” television show’s “Most Beautiful Place in America” honor in August 2011, and the added attention it cast on Glen Arbor and the surrounding region, 13.59 percent more tourists ran up our dunes, hiked our trails and frequented our restaurants and galleries last year compared with 2011.

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Michigan’s great legislative overreach?

Michigan Senate Bill 59 may go down as the most ill-timed pieces of legislation to come out of Lansing in decades. On Thursday, Dec. 13, the state’s Republican-dominated Senate and House passed a bill that would allow people to carry concealed weapons in schools —regardless of a school’s prerogative.

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Steamer New York shipwreck found in Lake Huron

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The wreck of the 283-foot Steamer New York, built in 1879, has been discovered in Lake Huron. David Trotter and the Undersea Research Associates (URA) team made the discovery after an extensive search effort that spanned several years.

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Rescue found, but reasons for sinking remain a mystery

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Local diver, filmmaker and author Ross Richardson has solved one local mystery — the location of the steamship Rescue, which owner Ralph Dorsey intentionally sank in Big Glen Lake 98 years ago. But the reason why Dorsey destroyed his boat is known only by the lake, and Dorsey’s ghost, leaving folklore to play a guessing game.

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Michigan’s renewable energy mandate “most important clean-energy vote this year”

Proposal 3, Michigan’s Renewable Energy Mandate, in particular, would require that 25 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable resources such as wind, solar, biomass and hydropower by 2025. The effort has been called “the most important clean-energy vote this year” (nationwide) by Grist magazine’s environmental luminary David Roberts.

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