Sleeping Bear manhunt, Empire sugar bear, Pop-tart man Bill Post, Twin Flames wedding: Glen Arbor Sun’s top-viewed stories of 2024
From staff reports
Our coverage in 2024 featured crimes, celebrities, cool new businesses, and an homage to the now removed Crystal River culverts. Our top 10 most-read stories included: a manhunt in the National Lakeshore; the search for a black bear that broke into Grocers Daughter Chocolate and devoured a 50-pound bag of sugar; Jerry Seinfeld’s movie “Unfrosted” about Pop-Tart man Bill Post, and the Twin Flames Universe cult’s secretive wedding in Traverse City. Thanks for your readership. We look forward to sharing more stories of Leelanau County events, characters, businesses, and the arts in 2025. Happy New Year! Here’s the list of our Top 10 stories by online views in 2024.
10. Puvogel acquires Glen Arbor’s Cottage Book Shop, June 10
The cozy book shop in a nearly 100-year-old log cabin in the heart of Glen Arbor has a new owner this spring. Jenny Puvogel acquired the Cottage Book Shop from Sue Boucher on April 1 after working there for five years. Boucher bought the book shop 10 years ago from Barbara Siepker, who acquired it from founder Mollie Weeks in 1995 and then moved it across Lake Street to its current location between the Glen Arbor Gardens and Lake Street Studios.
9. “I know this place.” Stones buy iconic Bicentennial Farm, October 24
Scott Stone, a woodworker and retired metallurgist from Ferndale, Michigan, was at Cavanaugh’s grocery at The Homestead resort in August waiting for his pizza when he picked up a copy of our Aug. 22 edition of the Glen Arbor Sun, flipped to page 2, and read a story about the iconic bicentennial barn property at the corner of M-22 and Bohemian Road being for sale again. The 1890s farmhouse and barn on a 4-acre property in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was purchased in February 2021 by Greg and Heather (Nachazel) Ford. “I know this place,” from biking by it on the Sleeping Heritage Trail, Scott told himself.
8. Black bear enters Empire chocolate shop, devours bag of sugar, April 18
A black bear has visited Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire on five consecutive evenings this week, rummaged through a dumpster and spreading garbage around the village, and pulling open the back door and devouring a 50-pound bag of sugar. On Tuesday night, April 16, around 10:30 pm, the bear entered the beloved chocolate shop for no more than 20 seconds, stole the sugar and returned to the sidewalk to eat it. It touched nothing else in the shop, not even the small, chocolate bears on display by the checkout counter.
7. Cherry Republic’s Bob Sutherland takes stage with “True Gretch” July 29
Governor Gretchen Whitmer will visit the Traverse City Opera House on Wednesday, July 31, to promote her new book, True Gretch, as part of the National Writers Series. Michigan’s popular second-term governor has a national profile and co-chairs Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House—a role she also held for President’s Biden’s campaign before he exited the race earlier this month. Cherry Republic founder and president, and Glen Arbor native, Bob Sutherland will guest host the event and interview Whitmer on stage.
6. Goodbye culverts, hello timber bridge over the Crystal River, September 4
“Shooting the tube” through the Crystal River culverts under County Road 675 is now an experience of the past. This month the Grand Traverse Engineering & Construction will remove the three culverts and replace the road above them with an 80-foot timber bridge. The work should be complete by the end of November, according to GTEC construction manager Ken Ockert.
5. River Club Glen Arbor targets June opening, seeks workers, May 14
River Club Glen Arbor, located where the Crystal River turns and heads northeast toward The Homestead and Sleeping Bear Bay, has announced its grand opening in mid-June. The project of former advertising executive and current Lake Leelanau resident Mike Sheldon, the River Club will offer Mexican-inspired foods, signature drinks from the Caddy Shack bar, riverfront and sky deck seating, a concert stage, a landscaped 18-hole mini-golf course and a gift shop. The destination will bring even more action to the east side of Glen Arbor.
4. Twin Flames Universe holds covert Traverse City wedding, June 26
The photos and cell phone videos suggested a typical northern Michigan summer wedding. But the ceremony held between Daniel Carboni and Cristina Fernandez on Sunday, June 16, at the Lodge at Hickory Hills—Traverse City’s municipal-owned ski hill—was anything but typical. The nuptials were the culmination of a four-day “Spiritual Life Summit” held by the Twin Flames Universe, a new age relationship cult run by Suttons Bay residents Jeff and Shaleia Ayan.
3. Seinfeld movie “Unfrosted” loosely based on longtime Glen Arbor resident, Pop-Tart man Bill Post, May 4
Unfrosted, the comedic farce directed by Jerry Seinfeld which launched on Netflix Friday, has a Glen Arbor connection—sort of. The film, which stars Seinfeld as well as Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grand and Amy Schumer, is (very) loosely based on the true story of how the Pop-Tart toaster pastries were created in 1963 in Battle Creek, Michigan. The real founder of Pop-Tarts was Bill Post, who lived for 20 years in Glen Arbor. Post passed away in February. His kids, who were his guinea pigs for the first Pop-Tarts, attended the movie’s premier this week in Hollywood.
2. “Sugar bear” trapped near Empire, relocated by DNR, April 23
The black bear that gained national press last week after it briefly broke into Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire and made off with a 50-pound bag of sugar apparently has a taste for chickens, too. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) caught the bear in a live trap today on Joshua Evan Fast’s property on Stormer Road, about 2.5 miles southeast of downtown Empire. Fast told the Sun that the bear had eaten 16 of his chickens over the past two weeks after breaking the door to their chicken coop.
1. Missing Wisconsin man found, arrested at Sleeping Bear Dunes, August 19
A man reported missing from Milwaukee was located by officials at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Tuesday afternoon, August 20. Steven Lisowski, 28, of Wisconsin, was taken into custody about 2:30 p.m. ET after an altercation between Lisowski and police officers. Lisowski had been reported critically missing by the Milwaukee Police Department on Sunday, August 18. A critical missing alert is used by the police department when an individual may be particularly vulnerable.
The Glen Arbor Sun, which celebrates 30 years in 2025, is a free community publication supported by local advertisers and subscribers. Thanks for your readership and support.
