Not long after moving to the region, Empire’s new doctor Daniel Hadley and his family visited the Empire Heritage Day festival on Oct. 12, where they watched fresh apple cider being made and logs being sawed. At the town’s historic museum, he posed for a photo in front of a wooden buggy—the kind that a country doctor may have used to visit far-flung patients in their homes a century ago. Dr. Hadley won’t be making house calls at all hours down Leelanau County’s dusty two-track roads. But he will offer primary care four days a week to people of all ages at the clinic on M-22 just north of downtown. According to Munson Healthcare, the greater Empire area serves nearly 5,600 patients.