The Port Oneida Rural Historic District — the picturesque tapestry of late 19th century farms, fields and rolling hills, just east of Glen Arbor on M-22 — will soon have a Cultural Landscape Management Plan, which Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (the local branch of the National Park Service, or NPS) will develop together with an Environmental Assessment.
There is no better way to get outside and burn off some of those extra holiday calories than by joining a Park Ranger at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on a special holiday snowshoe hike on Sunday, Dec. 26 and/or Thursday, Dec. 30.
Leelanau County’s “elephant in the room”, the long-shuttered Sugar Loaf ski resort, is back in the news following a quiet autumn season after the eccentric Las Vegas boxer-turned-businessman Liko Smith returned to the West Coast empty-handed. Resort owner Kate Wickstrom has been courted in recent months by at least two suitors, including David Skjaerlund, from Owosso, near Grand Rapids.
The Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor reports that, through a generous response to a local book drive facilitated by the Friends of the Glen Lake Community Library, new books will be given to over 240 needy local children this holiday season. But if you haven’t yet participated, the bookshop still has over 50 books — especially for preschoolers.
This fall marks the 30th anniversary of what has been called “the most widely watched PBS series in the world.” According to one of the show’s co-writers, almost a billion people worldwide have watched “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” and gained an understanding of humanity’s place in the universe, and the paths taken by early astronomers to achieve that knowledge. For 26 of those years, Norm Wheeler has shown all 13 television episodes of “Cosmos” to his high school science students at The Leelanau School in Glen Arbor.
State representative-elect Ray Franz favors cutting “Pure Michigan” funding by as much as 80 percent, the soon-to-be legislator from the 101st District told the Leelanau Enterprise last week. Franz said he would reduce funding from $25 to $30 million down to $5 to $6 million, while comparing Michigan’s tourism economy to keeping the books at the Onekema grocery store he owns.
Avian botulism returned to Lake Michigan this year, killing more species and lasting longer than other recent outbreaks, according to state wildlife officials and researchers. The increase came after a two-year lull. The outbreaks first hit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Benzie and Leelanau counties in 2006. The die-offs rapidly spread across northern Lake Michigan shorelines and killed an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 birds in 2007.
Late last month, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff refused to throw out a lawsuit filed against Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Oltersdorf. The lawsuit was filed last year by several current and former members of the sheriff’s department who accuse Oltersdorf of listening to conversations on what employees believed to be private lines starting in 2006.
Glen Arbor, Michigan, has a lot going for it. Lake Michigan, the Sleeping Bear Dunes, friendly locals, a vibrant art scene … and here’s a new notch for the belt. BroBible.com (“Every bro has a story”), an online fraternity-spirit lad mag, has named Glen Arbor among the most “Bro Towns” in the United States.
Check out this video by the Leelanau Conservancy that shows the beauty of our county during the wintertime. Sure, it’s cold up here, but you can snowshoe, ski, and watch the sun’s reflection off the ice.