Local Personality

Longtime Glen Arbor gallery owner Ruth Conklin retires

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When Ruth Conklin first opened her gallery in 1980, she featured her own artwork and that of a couple artist friends. When she closes the gallery for good this year, she will have represented hundreds, if not thousands of artists. “It’s grown as the business went on. It was just my two or three friends originally,” she says from the gallery in Glen Arbor. “The number right now—probably 120. There are so many (artists) with little pieces,” she says, gesturing past the small items directly in front of her toward the jewelry and display case. Conklin’s gallery debuted in 1980 in the old soda shop, before moving to the front porch of what is now the Totem Shop. In 1991, she built the gallery at its current site on M-109.

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“I’m comfortable in my skin. Part of that is being able to listen to somebody else.”

The next installment in Community Conversations: Exploring What Matters to our Neighbors—a storytelling project of PerSisters and Leelanau Indivisible—features Myron Anderson, a 62-year-old cherry farmer and horticultural aide who lives in Suttons Bay. “I know where I stand and I know who I am. I’m comfortable in my skin,” said Anderson. “Part of that is being able to listen to somebody else.”

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Leelanau’s beloved T. Rex migrates to Traverse City

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Gilbert is on the move. But don’t worry—the massive tyrannosaurus rex is not terrorizing the neighborhood or lumbering through the woods in search of his next meal. Instead, he is being taken apart and transported from his setting on M-72 east of Empire to his new home on Cass Road in Traverse City in front of the upcoming TentCraft headquarters. The brainchild of metalworker and artist Curtis Warnes and brought to life, or at least creation, by sculptor Enoch Flaugher, Gilbert will soon grace the front entrance at what will be the new location of TentCraft. “It’s quite an endeavor, both to build and take apart. It’s going smoothly,” says Warnes. TentCraft owner Matt Bulloch, who purchased the T Rex, says the dinosaur will fit right in with his company’s ethos. TentCraft’s values are right there on its website: “We are rooted in humility, hard work, fun, and a little weirdness.” In that respect, having a life-size T Rex welcome both employees and visitors makes perfect sense.

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Fundraiser continues for The Homestead’s Jamaican workers a year after Hurricane Melissa

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Longtime seasonal residents at The Homestead, John and Belynda Hudspeth, offered this Dec. 26 update for their crowdsourcing fundraiser to support 35 seasonal Jamaican workers at the Glen Arbor resort whose communities were impacted by the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa on Oct. 28. Their campaign has raised $48,000. However, the more than 80 people (including children and the elderly) directly impacted by this fund are only in the very early stages of a massive rebuilding process, write the Hudspeths. Click here to read more and for a link to donate. … In the closing days of 2025, we’re updating key stories that the Glen Arbor Sun published this year.

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“Without the earth, without the water, we’re nothing. Without this planet, we’re nothing”

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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.”

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“The only way that we can move forward is through being good to one another”

The next installment in Community Conversations: Exploring What Matters to our Neighbors—a storytelling project of PerSisters and Leelanau Indivisible—features Patrick Concannon, a 44-year-old tribal member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians who lives in Lake Leelanau. With Indigenous People’s Day coming up on Oct. 12, and with a national midterm election in a divided nation looming in a few weeks, we found Concannon’s words to be meaningful.

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Community Conversations across political divides: Glen Lake senior Kendall McNitt

The next installment in Community Conversations: Exploring What Matters to our Neighbors—a storytelling project of PerSisters and Leelanau Indivisible—features Kendall McNitt, a 17-year-old Empire resident and Glen Lake high school senior. “I would personally like to see people that are willing to talk to each other more, and have conversations even if they don’t agree politically,” said McNitt.

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Rethreading a community narrative through neighborly conversations

With a divisive national election just weeks away, the group of Leelanau County neighbors behind Community Conversations: Exploring What Matters to our Neighbors believes in the power of storytelling to unite us. In the runup to election day, Nov. 3, we’ll highlight 10 Leelanau County residents who are profiled in this project by Leelanau Indivisible. First up is Navy veteran and retired pastor Tom Petersen.

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A housing success story in the heart of Leelanau County

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As Joshua Deters, owner of the VI Grill in Suttons Bay and Fiddleheads in Lake Leelanau, considered the ongoing housing challenge facing his employees, he received a phone call that surprised him. The new owners of a nearby business in Lake Leelanau, Mitten Self Storage, were offering to rent him a house year-round if it would help with housing his employees.

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Remembering environmental champion Skip Pruss

Michigan has lost one of its most valiant defenders and environmental stewards. Northport resident Stanley “Skip” Pruss, a husband, father, grandfather, friend, environmental attorney, clean energy expert and former board chair of Flow Water Advocates passed away from cancer on Sept. 5. Pruss was the co-founder of 5 Lakes Energy, specializing in energy policy and clean energy system development. Prior to establishing 5 Lakes Energy, he was the director of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth and the state’s Chief Energy Officer and served as Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s Special Advisor for Renewable Energy and the Environment.

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