Restoring the iconic Bicentennial Barn art

Scott Stone wants to update the old tradition of a community barn raising. He’s hoping to enlist friends, neighbors and any other interested parties in a community barn painting. This isn’t just about slapping some red and white on an old barn. It’s about restoring an iconic piece of the county’s landscape: the bicentennial barn just off West Harbor Highway outside Maple City. And it’s about honoring the way in which the barn was first repainted to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial. When Scott and Tamara Stone heard the property was for sale, they were intrigued. They read about it in a copy of the Glen Arbor Sun while they were vacationing at The Homestead.

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Ten years after Glen Arbor’s megastorm: Vicious winds birthed Patrick Niemisto’s song “Sand”

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Local musician Patrick Niemisto was just set to play at the Little Traverse Inn when the big storm of August 2, 2015, came howling through. He had set up inside as everyone knew big weather was coming. “Suddenly there was stuff flying in the air outside, and the power went out right away. M-22 was blocked just east of the Inn, and stranded folks came into the Inn and hung out,” he recalled. So Niemisto played acoustic music for “three or four” hours, then managed to pick his way home on back roads. The megastorm that pummeled Glen Arbor on that memorable Sunday afternoon 10 years ago packed straight-line wind speeds of more than 100 miles per hour—equivalent to a tornado or a type-2 hurricane. The winds toppled tens of thousands of trees, particularly on Alligator Hill and on the north side of Big Glen Lake, and knocked out power for a week during the height of the tourism season. No one died, desperate several near misses and dramatic stories. We devoted our entire Aug. 13, 2015, edition to coverage of the storm and Glen Arbor’s community resilience that followed, as neighbors helped neighbors. Much of the nation tuned into the coverage: “Glen Arbor” was briefly the top trending term on Facebook, and in the days after the Aug. 2 storm, our website, GlenArbor.com, attracted more than 100,000 views.

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Tribal fisherwoman Cindi John recovering after stabbings at Traverse City Walmart

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Cindi John, who owns and operates Treaty Fish Co. in Leelanau County together with her husband Ed, is recovering after being attacked on Saturday, July 26, at the Traverse City Walmart. Their daughter Ruby posted the news on Facebook early Sunday morning. Click on the story for a link to donate to support the John family during this difficult time. Eleven people were stabbed by the alleged perpetrator Bradford James Gille, who was subdued by fellow shoppers in the parking lot and is currently in police custody in Grand Traverse County. He may face charges of terrorism and assault with intent to murder. All 11 victims are expected to survive.

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Breathing with the Trees: relational forest therapy comes to Leelanau County this summer

Here in Leelanau County, we are no strangers to the health benefits of slowing down and immersing ourselves in nature. Our magnificent forests, lakes and fields are treasured by locals and enjoyed by millions of visitors each year. Spending time in nature supports our physical, mental and emotional well-being. We know it, we feel it, and we live it! But beyond just walking in the woods or getting outdoors, relational forest therapy aims to take the connection and its benefits deeper. This modern mindfulness experience is based on Shinrin-yoku, a Japanese practice of forest bathing which began in the 1980s as the Japanese government’s response to reports of their population’s increasing stress levels.

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MSU Extension’s Nikki Rothwell named Cherry Industry Person of the Year

Nikki Rothwell didn’t grow up with aspirations to be the National Cherry Queen. She was too interested in bugs. Nevertheless, the longtime director and educator at the Michigan State University Extension Office in Leelanau County found herself waving to the crowd as an honored participant in the DTE Energy Foundation Cherry Royale Parade. No tiara, though—instead, “I did get (to wear) a red jacket, like the Masters,” she says with a laugh, as winners of that golf tournament receive a green sport coat. Rothwell was honored as the Cherry Industry Person of the Year at the 2025 National Cherry Festival.

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Traverse City Dance Project features Glen Arbor talent

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You may have seen Severin Brotschul or his girlfriend Jessica He working summer days at the River Club Glen Arbor. Now you can watch them ply their trade on stage during an upcoming Traverse City Dance Project performance. The project is a realization of professional dancer and choreographer Brent Whitney’s dream to bring top-tier dance back to his hometown of Traverse City and to “ensure that the vibrant community of northern Michigan can readily access and afford opportunities to experience the art of dance at its finest.” Traverse City Dance Project launched in 2012. This is Severin and Jessica’s first year with Whitney’s company.

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Scratching the right itch

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Ron Reimink knew how uncomfortable and annoying swimmer’s itch could be. He spent much of his adult life trying to eradicate it in lakes across northern Michigan. Then one day, he realized he was completely wrong, writes Dan Wanschura in this story adapted from an Interlochen Public Radio podcast. Glen Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world—clear turquoise-colored water, with Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore off in the distance. It was an ideal setting for Reimink’s summer job. One particularly beautiful day, Reimink, who’s a biologist, was walking around the lake, through the water, up and over docks, doing research on ducks. Then, a couple hours after he’d wrapped up for the day, he started to get this sensation in his legs. He looked down, and there were all these red spots popping up. Each one was around the size of a nickel. They started to itch like crazy. “And I literally scratched many of them until they bled,” Reimink said. “It was so intense.”

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Keep it Blue: Glen Lake Association’s boat tours inspire water stewardship

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Each Friday in July the Glen Lake Association’s 23-foot Bennington pontoon boat called the Discovery Boat offers a couple two-hour tours that depart from Glen Craft Marina on Big Glen Lake and visit Fisher Lake, which connects the Glen Lakes with the Crystal River. The intent is to offer waterfront landowners and environmental stewards a narrated, hands-on educational tour of the health of these lakes.

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Mulvahill’s “The Lost Woman”

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Karen Mulvahill has always been a reader. After her sister taught her to read at age four, she regularly checked out the maximum number of books allowed by her local library. With the publication of her novel, “The Lost Woman,” she has transitioned from spiral notebooks to a computer keyboard. The Friends of the Leelanau Township Library in Northport will hold a celebration of the book launch at the Willowbrook Mill on July 8. Leelanau County has been and remains an environment where writers and artists can thrive.

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Life, liberty, beaches and pie—for our foreign-born workers, for us all

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July 4 has always been my favorite holiday since I was a young child running around Glen Arbor in the 1970s. I felt such pride being an American. Recently, our chef at the Cherry Public House told me that he saw a border patrol agent driving down M-22. He was miffed that they were patrolling Leelanau—200 miles from a border that happens to be the safest in the world. It is nerve-wracking for our foreign and local workers at Cherry Republic because we are a team and family and we don’t want to be broken up any more than the hard-working families we’ve seen on television torn apart in pools of tears these last six months. Cherry Republic is hosting a refugee family from Central America. The father has taken on the difficult job of stirring our four giant scalding jam and salsa kettles in our Empire plant. Unfortunately, because of the legal wrangling going on between the courts and The White House, our Central American refugees can no longer work. The pot stirrer in Washington shutting down the pot stirrer in Empire.

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