Glen Lake Association seeks help catching giant invasive koi

If you ask any fishing enthusiast what they hope to catch in Glen Lake, most will likely tell you they are seeking perch or bass or perhaps even a pike. However, this summer may be prime time to instead aim for bright orange koi fish, as the invasive species presence is confirmed in the lake for the third summer in a row. Koi, an invasive species known for their bright coloring, are a domesticated form of carp native to eastern Asia. They resemble oversized goldfish, and hold distinct and striking color patterns of orange, black, white and yellow. Their beautiful appearance makes them extremely popular as pets and in ornamental ponds worldwide. It is believed that the koi likely started off as pets, and made their way into the lake through being purposefully released. A single female can lay up to 400,000 eggs per breeding cycle, allowing for the population of koi to easily proliferate. 

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Glen Lake Woman’s Club holds Glen Arbor Art Fair

The 54th annual Glen Lake Woman’s Club Art Fair will be held on Wednesday, July 15, from 10 am until 4 pm at the Glen Arbor Township Hall. The Art Fair features artists carefully selected to represent a wide variety of one-of-a-kind art pieces for sale including pottery, painting, textiles, woodworking, and jewelry. Each year, thousands of people shop for that unique piece of art, either for themselves or for a special gift. Some go to their favorite artists’ booths to add to a collection, while others like to peruse vendors new to the Art Fair for a special purchase. The Art Fair is a family-friendly event with a large selection of treasures available across a wide range of price points.

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Congressional candidate Callie Barr wins Pete Buttigieg endorsement

Callie Barr, a Democrat running to represent Northern Michigan in Congress, picked up a coveted endorsement today from Pete Buttigieg, a fellow Traverse City resident and former Transportation Secretary during the Biden administration. Barr, who lost during a previous run for Congress in 2024 to incumbent Republican Jack Bergman, faces a primary challenge this year from Upper Peninsula resident Kyle Blomquist. Michiganders will vote in the primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 4.

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Cherry Republic founder Bob Sutherland writes memoir “Here All Along”

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In 1989, Bob Sutherland started Cherry Republic selling T-shirts out of the trunk of his beat-up old Toyota Tercel. He’d park the car under the streetlight at Art’s Tavern and spend summer evenings chatting up tourists at the bar then taking them out to the bungeed-down trunk. They’d hand him $15 for a T-shirt, resplendent with Kristin Hurlin’s original cherry tree and the now-iconic phrase, “Life, Liberty, Beaches & Pie.” In his new book “Here All Along,” which publishes this month and is available at the store, Sutherland shares deeply personal stories of loss, wayfinding, wildness, adventure, and hard sticky work that built Cherry Republic.

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Arts Center author talk examines a changing Northern Michigan

What happens when a place is so beautiful that everyone wants to go there—and then they stay? That question is central to Leelanau County author Tim Mulherin’s book This Magnetic North: Candid Conversations On A Changing Northern Michigan. Mulherin will discuss why he wrote the book, and the conclusions he drew at the July 11 Coffee with the Authors interview at the Glen Arbor Arts Center. The program begins at 11 am.

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Sleeping Bear Forever: new name reflects expanding mission

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A weathered red barn leans gently into the wind at Port Oneida. Rows of apple trees still mark orchards planted generations ago. White farmhouses sit beneath towering maples, their porches looking out across fields first cultivated more than a century ago. In Glen Haven, restored maritime buildings recall an era when steamships connected isolated shoreline communities and commerce shaped life along the lakeshore. These places don’t command the same attention as the dunes. Yet, together they reveal the history, culture and character that give Sleeping Bear its soul. Helping people discover that story has become the defining mission of the nonprofit formerly known as Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear. Now approaching its 30th year, it is entering a new chapter with a new name: Sleeping Bear Forever.

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Sound Garden saxophone surprise in Sleeping Bear Dunes

One might expect to hear the sounds of a saxophone in a sophisticated concert hall, a wedding, or an otherwise lavish, exclusive event. Fewer may expect to hear such sounds in places such as local boutique Cottonseed, or outside Rinco Bros Coffee. This surprise and accessibility is the prime objective of the Sound Garden Project, an initiative by Interlochen Public Radio to “plant classical music in unexpected places”. The Cerus Quartet, an award-winning saxophone quartet, visited Glen Arbor as part of this initiative from June 9-21. The Quartet performed in locations such as Leelanau Coffee Roasters, Cherry Republic, and even the post office before hosting a culminating concert at the Glen Arbor Township Hall.

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Lake Street Studios launch summer art openings

Just as one exhibit comes down, another rises in its place—a rhythm that defines the summer art season at Lake Street Studios Center Gallery. There is little pause between them, only a seamless moment of transition, where one body of work gives way to the next. In that exchange, a living tapestry of creative work takes shape within Glen Arbor’s arts community. That rhythm was on full display as the series opened with Traverse City-based artist Charles Murphy on June 26. Murphy’s return—his first in roughly a decade—carried the weight of both familiarity and evolution, a reentry forged by years of growth in his practice. Read the story for the entire 2026 artists lineup at Lake Street Studios Center Gallery.

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String Band returns to The Homestead’s Music on the Mountain series

The next Music On The Mountain concert at The Homestead will be a throwback. On July 8, the Blue Water Ramblers will take the stage, performing their mix of traditional favorites in the folk tradition, songs by Woody Guthrie, Tom T. Hall, John Denver and others, along with their own originals. “We come out of the Woodie Guthrie-Pete Seeger folk and bluegrass tradition,” says bandleader R.H. “Bear” Berends.

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Gazing into a pool of courage

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On the occasion of the nation’s 250th birthday, Leelanau resident and reverend Lucy Waechter Webb shares a journey her family took earlier this year to Webster Groves, Missouri, to celebrate Benny Gordon, Jr, an African-American civic leader who fought Jim Crow segregation and pushed for the opening of the local swimming pool for everyone. Webb’s great-grandfather, “Happy” Appel, the mayor of Webster Groves, denied Black residents access to swim in the city pool. She recently learned about her family’s role in this story when she began asking questions about her ancestry and her people’s relationship to the history of racial violence in this country.

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