By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor When Gary Cozette and Joe Lada climb the ladder to the roof of their “Tower House” in Burdickville, they behold a breathtaking view of the Glen Lakes, with the Sleeping Bear Dunes and Lake Michigan in the distance. In their immediate foreground is an array of recently installed, cutting-edge solar […]
Retirement is an interpretive experience. For one guy it might mean a pastured life. For another, there’s the Tom Van Zoeren School of Retirement: Not! A former ranger with the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL), Van Zoeren’s post-professional life is a blueprint of engaged, purposeful work.
In advance of Glen Lake Restaurant Week, May 1-9, we reached out to Trattoria Funistrada to ask our local chefs what excites them about this culinary opportunity before the local tourism season kicks into gear.
The Foothills Café in Burdickville began a “Pay It Forward” Initiative this past summer, collecting over $2,200 in donations. This money has been designated to help stock the shelves of a couple local food banks and to promote a Karma Kitchen. Come to the Foothills on Saturday, Feb. 21, between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. for breakfast, free of charge. Visitors will have the option to “Pay It Forward” for 2015.
Burdickville historian Tom Van Zoeren reports that Dottie Lanham passed away on December 30 — five days after her 90th birthday. She was born on Christmas Day in 1924. Van Zoeren penned the book Dottie Lanham of Burdickville: Images, Recollections, and Observations of a Northern Michigan Woman and Her Community.
The most popular Glen Arbor Sun story of 2014 was an investigative article in February that featured a proposed canopy air walk in Kasson Township, near Burdickville, that never materialized. Local opposition to Mark Evan’s “air walk” was nearly unanimous, and passionate. Our story attracted thousands of views, and 55 comments.
The future of Burdickville is now. The engagement of Max Miller to Heather LaBerge is another indicator that the next generation of Burdickville-ians is poised to take over from their parents. Max’s mother Pat Miller lives in the house she built in 1988 on MacFarlane Road opposite the foot of Bow Road inside the corner that used to be an apple orchard, but she has been coming here since 1954. Along with sisters Nancy and Jan and brother Don, Pat now owns and operates the Miller Cabins that their parents bought in 1961. So all of the Millers virtually grew up in Burdickville.
The Manitou Music Festival’s annual choral event highlights the Summer Singers, an all volunteer group of more than 50 singers from around Leelanau county. The concert, directed by Empire resident Dana Allen, will perform traditional classics like American Folk Rhapsody and Ching a Ring Chaw and favorites like It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing by Duke Ellington and the ballad O My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose with cello and oboe.
Burdickville, the hamlet on the southeast edge of Big Glen Lake, is full of history and characters. And if this area is the most beautiful in America, Burdickville may be the local enclave with the most charm.
The Foothills Café and Motel in Burdickville have been under “new” ownership for five years. Thus far, we’ve made only minimal changes to both the café and motel, in order to ease into the community and to honor 50 years of tradition. But this year, our team introduced some new twists on age-old ideas, and launched the Foothills “Pay It Forward” project.