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Historic Glen Arbor Cemetery hosts fifth annual Memorial Ceremony

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See 67 newly placed headstones placed on formerly unknown and unmarked graves at the historic Glen Arbor Cemetery on Friday, May 24. Previously, 13 marked graves were the only ones known to be there. Then, one year ago, Glen Arbor Township employed ground-penetrating radar (GPR), revealing 75 unmarked graves and a “potter’s field” which holds additional remains. The 10 am ceremony will feature a eulogy of Civil War veteran Edmund Trumbull, poetry by Anne-Marie Oomen, taps by Norm Wheeler, and the Glen Lake eighth graders will claim the names of those buried at the cemetery whom they each have studied.

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Glen Arbor cemetery holds memorial ceremony, library presentation

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The fourth annual Glen Arbor Cemetery Memorial Ceremony, commemorating the nearly lost site, will be held at 10 am on Friday, May 26. John Sawyer of Traverse City will deliver a eulogy detailing the life of one of the four Civil War veterans buried at the cemetery, James Lawrence Green. And on Wednesday, May 24, the Glen Lake Community Library in Empire will host a presentation about the history of the Glen Arbor Township Cemetery, which served the Glen Lake area from 1880-1927, and the renewed effort to reclaim this long-neglected resting place. Last week, ground penetrating radar revealed an additional mass grave of more than 50 bodies buried at the cemetery sometime between the late 1800s and early 1900s. This cemetery in the woods off Forest Haven Road, west of downtown Glen Arbor, was nearly lost to history before Glen Arbor Township regained control over it from the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore after the big storm of August 2015. Click on the story to watch a narrated video tour of the cemetery.

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Glen Arbor Cemetery holds Memorial ceremony

The Glen Arbor Township Cemetery Advisory Board invites the public to attend the third annual Memorial Ceremony on Friday, May 27, at 10 a.m. This third annual grave dedication will be performed in period attire by John Sawyer of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, in order to honor Civil War veteran Daniel Parker.

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Memorial Day ceremony at Glen Arbor Township Cemetery honors Civil War veteran

For the first time in nearly a century there will be a memorial ceremony under the auspices of the Township of Glen Arbor at the old cemetery on Forest Haven Road. In 1977, half a century after the last person was buried there, the cemetery was mistakenly transferred to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in a land title mix-up. The error was discovered 18 months ago and was put to rights over the following year. The service will be at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 28. The public is welcome.

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Discovery reverts ownership of Glen Arbor Cemetery from National Park back to Township

Discovery of a 70-year-old glitch in deeds reveals that the National Park does not own the Glen Arbor Township Cemetery; Glen Arbor does. This marks a major turning point in what had been a growing list of massive indignities regarding the site—lost grave markers and lost records, resulting in lost names, then obliteration by a massive storm.

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Field trip brings cemetery research to life for Glen Lake eighth graders

A series of coincidences culminated in an unexpected field trip for two Glen Lake eighth graders on June 9. The boys had been researching Civil War veteran Edmund Trumbull, who is buried at the Glen Arbor Township Cemetery. In late May, they learned that the veteran’s home is currently owned by Lakers basketball coach Don Miller and his wife, Sandy. The two are students of Melissa Okerlund, who teaches history in Miller’s old classroom. Okerlund arranged for them to visit the house in early June, where they met Trumbull descendant Dede DeWitt deManigold, a former student of Miller’s.

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News of Glen Arbor Township Cemetery project brings Trumbull descendant to tears

Dede DeWitt deManigold of Traverse City wasn’t expecting the call yesterday. Even so, when asked whether she had an ancestor buried at the former Glen Arbor Township Cemetery, her response was immediate. “Not an ancestor,” she replied. “Ancestors.”

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Search is on to identify owner of Glen Arbor Township Cemetery

A volunteer group of citizens are working to identify who owns the Glen Arbor Township Cemetery in the woods behind Forest Haven Road and M-22, on land that borders the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

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Former Glen Arbor Township Cemetery lives again

On Saturday, November 23, an unprecedented event occurred in Glen Arbor. An old abandoned graveyard came alive again, thanks to some very caring folks from here and from Interlochen.

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Forest Haven Cemetery, buried in the woods, sealed by the storm

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At one time, it was lovely and serene. “We begin in a peaceful place in the woods among the tall timber and wildflowers of Leelanau County,” wrote author Leonard G. Overmyer in his 1999 book Forest Haven Soldiers: The Civil War Veterans of Glen Lake & Surrounding Leelanau. “A site, by Forest Haven Road and M-22, where lies the old Glen Arbor Township Cemetery. It was used primarily in the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s for the early pioneers of the area. This quiet location holds the final resting-place of several Civil War soldiers.”

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