Empire Anchor Day Festival returns Saturday—but movie canceled Friday

From staff reports

Empire will holds its annual Anchor Day Festival this weekend, but with a shortened schedule of events, given the shoddy air quality due to the wildfire smoke from Canada and Minnesota. Tonight’s movie at the Township Hall is canceled since the building has no air conditioning and air quality over Leelanau County might not improve until tomorrow. The parade, chicken dinner, and an evening street dance scheduled for Saturday, July 18, are still on. Stay tuned for updates, and scroll down for a lineup of events.

This unique, small-town celebration commemorates the raising of an anchor from the depths of Lake Michigan in July 1977. The anchor was discovered by Doug Manning and Michelle Stryker while canoeing off the Empire Beach shore in about 18 feet of water. Manning asked the Empire museum if it would accept a freighter anchor which was attached to a large wooden beam. Dave Taghon, who was then Empire village president, knew that any relic found in Great Lakes waters belonged to the State of Michigan, so he called the Dorsett Maritime Academy and Oberlin College with his dilemma. He was assured that, if the anchor was properly displayed, Empire could have it. The anchor was raised by many village volunteers and was placed in its current location at the south side of Empire Beach. In 1978 the museum sponsored the first annual Anchor Day celebration to remember the exciting day the anchor was retrieved from the depths of Lake Michigan.

Here is the lineup of scheduled events: