Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear Hosts Historic Preservation Projects

Press release
Join the nonprofit organization, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear, in a volunteer project to preserve some of the historic buildings in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District. The group is hosting a preservation project on two buildings at the Ole Oleson farm. The event will take place from Friday, July 18-Sunday, July 20 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Volunteers will be restoring entrances, repairing doors, stripping and residing the exterior, adding floor joists and trimming the windows of a historically significant granary and pig barn at the farm, one of 19 in the historic district which tells the story of pioneer settlement.
“With over 350 historic buildings and landscapes in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, there is much work to be done. Every year we tackle a handful of volunteer projects in the Park, and fund the preservation of others,” says Susan Pocklington, Director of Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear. “We’re focusing quite a bit on the Ole Oleson farm this year which has a nice collection of outbuildings. In June we conducted a field clearing project on the farm to remove invasive species, funded with a grant we received from Cherry Republic.”
Both skilled and general laborers are needed. Hard-soled shoes are required. Bring a lunch. For more information or to register, please call (231) 334-6103, or register online at www.phsb.org. To get to the project site, take Basch Rd. off of M-22, and right on Kelderhouse Rd. (ends at the Oleson Farm.)