Grand Rapids artist Holly Sturges takes viewers on a tour of her secret painting places in “Shhh! Don’t Tell,” new plein air landscapes on view from July 10-16 at Center Gallery, 6023 S. Lake St., in Glen Arbor. A reception to open the exhibition is from 6-8 p.m.
The area in Northern Michigan which is now the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was first inhabited by Native Americans, who lived in small settlements around rivers and lakes. But the village known today as Glen Haven was not a major site of Indian settlement. It didn’t even attract much attention from European settlers until 1857, nearly a decade after the Leelanau mainland had begun to be inhabited. By that time, the opening of the Erie Canal had greatly increased steamship traffic on the Great Lakes, with vessels carrying freight and passengers from Buffalo to Chicago. The need for wooding stations to fuel the ships that passed through the shipping lane reached an all time high, and in 1857, C.C. McCarty, the brother-in-law of Glen Arbor pioneer John E. Fisher, recognized the potential of the Sleeping Bear Bay area to become a major refueling station and a thriving settlement.
It’s common knowledge that the public can walk along the Lake Michigan shoreline. You can walk it anywhere on public property. That means public road ends, or the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The question is: how far from the water’s edge can a person legally walk along private property? This is an important issue, since about 70 percent of Michigan’s “third coast” is privately owned. The answer is unclear, because neither courts in Michigan nor in other Great Lakes states have offered a clear and consistent answer.
The perennially popular Northport Community Band, conducted by Don Wilcox, will perform patriotic favorites on Friday, July 3 at 7 p.m. on the Old Schoolhouse lawn in Glen Arbor. The concert kicks off this year’s Manitou Music Festival.
Meet Stan Brubaker: Glen Havenite, husband to Jo, father of four children, dog rescuer. There may be more to his CV, but not this: Under no circumstances is Stan Brubaker the boss of the Glen Arbor July 4th parade. “Nobody has a title,” he said. “Nobody’s in charge.”
The Glen Arbor Women’s Club is pleased to award scholarships to five outstanding young women graduating from Glen Lake High School. The scholarships were awarded on the basis of academics, community involvement, and overall achievement. The scholarships were presented by Carol Becker, representing the Women’s Club, at the Senior Awards Ceremony at Glen Lake High School on May 21.
Grand Ledge artist Michael Lowery makes a “Return To Leelanau” with a new body of watercolor paintings on June 26 at Center Gallery, which is located at 6023 S. Lake Street in Glen Arbor. An artist’s reception is scheduled from 6-8 p.m.
Glen Arbor’s annual Tennis Tournament is scheduled for June 26-28. All matches are doubles and are played at the downtown courts in Glen Arbor or at the Leelanau School.
The public is invited to attend the official ribbon cutting for the newest section of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail from Fisher Road, near Glen Arbor, to Port Oneida Road, on June 17 at 11 a.m. at the Olsen Farm in Port Oneida, 3164 W Harbor Highway (M-22).
Thinking of taking your kayak or canoe from Sleeping Bear Point to South Manitou Island? Think again. The air temperature may reach a balmy 80 degrees, and the surface water temperature near the beach is slowly approaching swimmable levels. But the open water temperature out in the Manitou Passage never reaches the 60s. That’s frigid. And it can kill you.