Crystal River

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National Lakeshore collaborates with Leelanau Conservancy to acquire, preserve Glen Lake ridgeline property

Late last month Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore acquired 8.66 acres of picturesque Miller Hill ridgeline property with views of the Glen Lakes and Lake Michigan from the Leelanau Conservancy for $685,000. Conservancy executive director Tom Nelson said the conservation of the Glen Lake Ridgeline project was the result of a collaboration with true, unsung heroes in the Glen Lake community and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The Conservancy and the Lakeshore have an innovative history of working together to acquire and preserve pristine and sensitive land. In 2005 the Conservancy acquired property along the Crystal River that had been potentially slated for a golf course and turned it over to the Lakeshore. The acquisition represented a happy ending to a saga that divided the local community.

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The Mill launches Supper Club this Fall

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The Mill in Glen Arbor will launch its long anticipated restaurant this fall in the historic Braemmer flour mill on the Crystal River. The Mill announced its Supper Club on Instagram today with 12 dates between mid-October and mid-December. According to Kelsey Duda, owner of Fernhaus Studios, which manages The Mill, supper club tickets will start at $75 per person.

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Multi-million-dollar bridges will replace Crystal River culverts: County Road 675 closes this Fall

Just outside of Glen Arbor, a well-traveled section of County Road 675 is imperiled as it crosses three sets of undersized culverts slowly crumbling into the Crystal River. That’s a multi-million-dollar problem for the Leelanau County Road Commission. The engineering plans call for the construction of a concrete and steel structure to replace the culverts under CR 675 closest to M-22. That will keep the two road surfaces closely matched in elevation. The two sets of culverts further east, including the “shoot-the-tube” culverts, are to be replaced with classic wood bridges providing a lot of headroom for paddlers, ending the need for portages across the road. Plans call for the replacement of the Tucker Lake overflow culvert with a wide and substantial concrete box culvert.

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Millie’s Pizza and Ice Cream opens on the Crystal River

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This summer means now. A sign reading “Opening this Summer” inside the window at Millie’s, the new pizza and ice cream restaurant on the footprint of the famed Riverfront Pizza, has been replaced by a new sign that reads “Grand Opening” and “Thursday to Sunday 12 pm to 8 pm.” Millie’s holds its grand opening on Thursday, Aug. 10, and features made-from-scratch “Roman Pizza al Taglio,” known for its semi-thick, light and fluffy interior and crispy exterior. Pizza slices, which cost $5 or $6 each, offer cheese, pepperoni, sausage and onion, or mushroom and roasted garlic. For dessert, Millie’s features ice cream in two flavors—cinnamon toast and dark cherry—crafted from a rich, custard base that uses cream, whole milk, sugar, salt and egg yolks. The restaurant is managed by Fernhaus Studio hospitality group, whose team also runs The Mill, another time-honored Glen Arbor landmark on the Crystal River, The Riverside in Leland, and Brew in Traverse City.

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Joining the “Bordulac Attack”

Detroit native Pam Baad—pictured here jogging up the Lake Michigan Overlook at Pierce Stocking Drive—was named women’s “champignon” of the 2021 Bordulac Attack. The informal race is organized by the Bordulac family, includes six segments in and around Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and must be completed between June 15 and Halloween. Anyone can form a team or compete solo on any given day by using the Strava mobile app.

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Spinning ice

Steve Webb took this photo on Jan. 31 of an ice disc spinning in the Crystal River. It seems that a small particle of ice got caught in an eddy, spun around and around, and the ice disc grew.

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Exploring sacred Crystal River

The first time Michael Brennan stepped into the river in January 2022 it was 10 degrees and snowing, but he’d made a promise to himself at the first of the year to visit the Crystal River at least once a month. “I’ve been coming to the Leelanau Peninsula for 30 years. This is my spiritual home, but that year I made a commitment to the river. I wanted to learn more about it.” “River Sacred—Uncovering the Crystal” is the self-published booklet that was created from Michael’s year in the Crystal River. It’s part photography, part poetry, part scrapbook, but it reads more like a Sundance short documentary.

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Ringing in the new year on the Crystal River

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Leah Turner, Maggie and Dana MacLellan, Isabel and Josh Fast kayaked the Crystal River on New Year’s Eve day, Dec. 31, 2022. Maggie started the annual tradition about a decade ago. Whether frigid or balmy, the friends close out each year bundled in warm jackets and with life vests in tow.

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The Mill Glen Arbor seeks executive chef for 47-seat restaurant on Crystal River

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The iconic Mill on the Crystal River, which Turner Booth has restored since he won zoning approval in a public referendum vote in August 2021, aims to reopen this spring and include a 47-seat all-day cafe and fine-dining restaurant. Early this month The Mill posted a job for an Executive Chef.

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Tribes lead effort to restore aquatic ecosystems

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The Crystal River near Glen Arbor in Leelanau County is one of the central features in a new documentary film to be screened on WCMU Public Television at Noon on Sunday, Oct. 2. Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems shines a light on Michigan’s first indigenous-led, multi-agency collaborative created to restore and protect the ecology of streams and rivers across the entire region. Led by the Grand Traverse Band (GTB) of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Tribal Stream and Michigan Fruitbelt Collaborative includes more than a dozen nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies working together to remove blockages to the natural flow of water in Michigan’s streams and rivers—often called “the arteries of mother earth.”

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