Art’s Tavern owner Tim Barr turned 60 years young on Feb. 16. Nearly 100 Glen Arbor locals came out to the tavern to celebrate him. Riverfront Deli owner Sue Nichols baked these cupcakes in Tim’s likeness (photo below), and Beach Bard Norm Wheeler recited the following poem for Tim (adapted from Stone Circle founder Max Ellison’s poem “50”):
Steve Yancho, Chief of Natural Resources at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, retired on December 31 of last year after 36 years with the National Park Service (NPS) — nearly 34 of them at the Sleeping Bear. Yancho, a Michigan native and graduate of the Michigan Technological University School of Forestry, started with the National Park Service in 1974 as a seasonal ranger. After a series of appointments at Isle Royale National Park and Fire Island National Seashore, he began working at Sleeping Bear Dunes in 1978 and had been there ever since.
The sudden death of Ben Bricker, early on Monday, December 12, has saddened and shaken not only the Glen Arbor community, but people who loved him in places near and far: his children Cherrie, Bruce, and Beth and their spouses, his brother Bill and sister Barbara, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, in-laws, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and acquaintances from the many phases of a life long and well-lived.
When I spoke on the phone recently with Derek Bailey, current chair of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and now Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, he was crossing the Mackinac Bridge and returning home to Traverse City. The tires on his 2005 Saturn VUE hummed loudly as he passed over the rumble strips on the majestic arch that connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.
As autumn recedes under the lowering, snow-filled skies of winter, curl up in a warm place with the newest book of essays by celebrated nature writer Jerry Dennis, with wood engravings by the incomparable Glenn Wolff. Or better yet, follow the writer outside, as he takes you on a guided exploration along The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes.
Ever since Wednesday, August 17, Northern Michiganders have both embraced and grappled with the news that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and surrounding region are considered the “most beautiful place in America” — at least according to 22 percent of 100,000 voters who participated in the ABC show Good Morning America’s online competition the second week of August.
Cindy Hollenbeck surprised herself this past winter when she took a personal day and drove to Lansing to join a demonstration against Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s Emergency Manager bill — which was signed into law on March 16 and gave the governor the right to dissolve economically troubled schools and public municipalities and appoint his own fiscal managers to run them.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, a day honoring the American worker can be traced to Sept. 5, 1882, likely the result of a suggestion by one Michael Maguire, a machinist and union secretary of New York City’s Central Labor Union. In 1884, the “workingmen’s holiday” was adjusted to the first Monday in September, and became a national holiday through an Act of Congress in 1894 with public parades, speeches by community leaders and picnics.
Back in Empire for a recap of another successful mission, Endeavour shuttle pilot Greg Johnson oooed and awed his audience at the township hall on Aug. 19 with new photos and a video from his STS-134 mission in May to the International Space Station (ISS).
We’ve now owned Northwoods Hardware for 13 months, and in that time we’ve come to realize just how significant our moose is to our customers. Dee and I originally thought after closing on the purchase last July that we’d remove him, as neither of our families are hunters and we felt “bad” about the moose. But we soon realized in casual discussion that we would have many unhappy customers, and that kids “like” our moose.