Good Harbor Bay

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Celebrating songs of Leelanau: Jeff Maharry’s “Good Harbor Bay”

Our story series celebrating songs inspired by Leelanau County and the Sleeping Bear Dunes continues with Illinois resident and summer visitor Jeff Maharry’s homage to Good Harbor Bay. “For years my family has come to Leelanau County in early August and have explored just about every point where you can access Lake Michigan,” said Maharry, a singer songwriter and musician from Homewood, Illinois, near Chicago. He performs solo as well as with his band Falling Stars. “There are amazing spots across the whole peninsula, but there’s something just perfect about Good Harbor Bay so we find ourselves going back there again and again. I wrote this song in the summer of 2010 after we spent a simply wonderful day on the beach, and I can hear the waves and feel the sun on my face every time I sing it.”

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Sleeping Bear Dunes to conduct prescribed fires this spring

The National Park Service plans to conduct four prescribed fires in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore before May 15. Prescribed fire is used as a tool to assist in restoring forest habitat while also reducing the threat of wildland fires. In the Platte Plains area of the National Lakeshore, two prescribed fires will be on 1,490 acres. One burn unit includes and surrounds the Lasso Loop of the Platte Plains Trail. The second burn unit falls between Peterson and Lasso Roads.  

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“I know this place.” Stones buy iconic Bicentennial Farm

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Scott Stone, a woodworker and retired metallurgist from Ferndale, Michigan, was at Cavanaugh’s grocery at The Homestead resort in August waiting for his pizza when he picked up a copy of our Aug. 22 edition of the Glen Arbor Sun, flipped to page 2, and read a story about the iconic bicentennial barn property at the corner of M-22 and Bohemian Road being for sale again. The 1890s farmhouse and barn on a 4-acre property in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was purchased in February 2021 by Greg and Heather (Nachazel) Ford. “I know this place,” from biking by it on the Sleeping Heritage Trail, Scott told himself. Fast forward to Oct. 17, when Scott and his wife Tamara bought the bicentennial farm from the Fords, who are moving out of state. The Stones have vacationed in the Glen Arbor area for 23 summers, they love the National Park, the vibe here, the sense of community, and proximity to Lake Michigan. For the past year they’ve been casually looking for a place to buy.

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Come on, people now …

On Memorial Day, my wife persuaded me to accompany her to County Road 651 Beach on Good Harbor Bay for a few hours of rest and relaxation in the afternoon, writes Tim Mulherin in this opinion essay we published in our June 29 edition. There we were. Along with perhaps 150 other folks who wanted to recreate at one of the most publicized scenic destinations in the United States. While we dismantled our sun tent, I observed two large dogs running off their leashes, owned by two unassociated dog lovers. That’s not only breaking National Park Service rules, it’s also downright rude. Not everyone loves dogs, including some people and all wild animals protected by the park.

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Lakeshore restores route to Shell Lake

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is restoring an 0.8-mile section of National Park Service-owned dirt track in the Sleeping Bear Dunes Wilderness in the vicinity of Good Harbor. The unnamed route traveled south from West Lake Michigan Road to Shell Lake.

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Exploring our inland waters: What’s your favorite?

Everyone here has a favorite Lake Michigan beach. But what about those smaller lakes that dot our woods and meadows, or the creeks and rivers meandering through our woodlands? Which inland waters are preferred by locals who have lived in the area for a long time?

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Proposed Sleeping Bear Bay to Bay Trail meanders through support and opposition

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A “Bay to Bay” hiking, paddling and camping trail proposed for the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has generated excitement among local business owners and recreation enthusiasts but also attracted significant opposition from private property landowners who live near the trail’s potential route. Staff at the National Lakeshore have subsequently slowed planning for the Bay to Bay Trail initiative. They extended the public comment period by an extra month this fall, and have drawn out the project’s scoping phase until next summer.

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National Lakeshore to get federal wilderness approval

The Ticker and other media outlets reported earlier this month that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will receive the highest level of federal conservation protection for nearly 50 percent of our branch of the National Park Service.

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Good Harbor Day

This painting is an imaginary place, based on an adventure at Good Harbor Bay with my friend Marilyn. Years ago, we were having a hot, dry summer similar to our present conditions. We hiked for miles down the beach under sunny skies, while a dark cloud appeared in the northeast above the Whaleback. The storm moved in so rapidly we were engulfed long before we expected, far from our cars. Lightning and thunder crashed down all around as we ran for the relative shelter of the fore dune pine copes. We could just feel the great joy of all the plants as the heavy down pour washed off the dust and filtered down the root zone. Marilyn and I however had to run two miles through the violent storm, covering each lightning strike, and reaching our car, soaking wet. We laughed all the way home.

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Port Oneida Historic Landscape Plan raises question of preservation vs. recreation

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This summer, the National Park Service (NPS) unveiled its options for the Historic Landscape Management Plan of the Port Oneida Rural Historic District. Some four miles east of Glen Arbor, the shoreline settlement was founded as a logging community, with subsistence (family) farming and fishing, in the early 1860s by immigrant pioneers from Prussia and Hanover (now parts of modern Germany), and lived in continuously until the 1970s. It is defined as a “historic vernacular landscape … that has evolved through use by ordinary people” over a “period of significance of 1870-1945,” in the Plan’s Executive Summary, and it is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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