Port Oneida Fair marries old with new

By Ross Boissoneau

Sun contributor

Everything old is new again. That’s not simply a cute quote or the title of a song—it’s what happens every year at the Port Oneida Fair.

Haying the fields with horses. Making soap, churning butter, spinning fibers. Wood cutting with huge cross-cut saws (try it yourself). People dressed in turn-of-the-century garb (19th to 20th century, that is).

Each August, amid the pastoral setting of meadows, maples, barns, farmhouses, and corncribs, the Port Oneida Rural Historic District awakens from its peaceful slumber. The district comes alive with activity true to the period when it was a community of robust farms.

It’s both a demonstration and celebration of what life was like in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the rural farmsteads. This is one fair that won’t include elephant ears, cotton candy or a Ferris wheel. “This is like an old-fashioned country fair,” says Fair Coordinator Matt Mohrman, the volunteer coordinator at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

“We think of a fair now with rides, fries, elephant ears; (then) people brought out wares, crafts—it was a community event.”

This year’s Port Oneida Fair takes place Aug. 9 and 10 at five locations in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District: the Dechow, Olsen, Thoreson, and Kelderhouse farms, and the Port Oneida School. Each site will host a collection of themed demonstrations by artisans, with more than 70 activities happening across the fair.

It’s a change from past years, when there were six demonstration sites. “We’re condensing. The John Burfiend barn was proving (too far) out there for visitors,” says Mohrman. “The Thoreson farm is a little out there, but there is a shuttle and a walking trail.”

The Port Oneida Fair began in 2002 to highlight Northern Michigan’s agricultural and maritime heritage. It features displays of antique bicycles, cameras and phonographs, live animals, and demonstrations of basket-weaving, soap-making, butter-churning, spinning, and fur trapping. Each of the locations offer activities relevant to the area and the era.

Among the special events and activities is cricket at the Dechow farm, where there will also be animals including calves, donkeys, goats and chickens; building a model of a timber frame barn at the Olsen farm; and all the activities at the school, where a hand pump still provides water. Students planted the row of sugar maples along the southern edge of the schoolyard to celebrate Arbor Day many years ago; they were tapped by the Kelderhouses to make maple syrup.

Several generations of Port Oneidans attended the school. It was also a central gathering place of the community after the store near the dock closed around 1900. After the school consolidated with the Glen Arbor School in the early 1940s, the building was used as the meeting place for the Port Oneida Community.

Saturday night, Aug. 10, marks the return of the Star Party to the Port Oneida Fair the first since before the pandemic. It will take place at the Thoreson Farm from 9 to 11 p.m. with members of the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society, who will be on hand to share telescopes and their knowledge.

Visitors can check out the summer night sky constellations, Saturn, and possibly a few bright Perseid meteors.

Another new addition this year is that visitors can access all the information about the fair directly on their phones. The NPS app provides a complete fair itinerary under the Sleeping Bear Dunes’ “THINGS TO DO” section. The app can provide a real-time interactive map so fair-goers will know exactly where they are within the historic district. The web calendar has details at nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/calendar.htm. For more information, call 231-326-4700, extension 5010.

The Port Oneida Fair is presented by the National Lakeshore in partnership with the non-profit organization Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear. The fair promotes the preservation of rural traditional skills, crafts, landscapes, and communities of the Upper Great Lakes Region through education and artistic expression.

“To me it’s the best thing,” says Mohrman. “Yes, it’s museum-ish, (but) there’s so much interactive stuff for kids to do. Corn-shelling is always a big hit, a one-cylinder engine that ground corn, pumped water and washes. That was common on a 1900s farm.”

There is no cost for the event. However, visitors must have a park entrance pass or an annual pass displayed in their vehicle.