Longtime Glen Arbor custodian Leonard Ole Thoreson, passed away on March 15 at age 98. Thoreson was born on November 28, 1926, in Port Oneida (on the Thoreson Farm). As a young boy his father worked the fields with horses until he purchased the Ford Tractor that is on the farm today. A lifelong resident of Leelanau County, Thoreson served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was a dedicated member of St. Philip Neri Catholic Church.
The former Glen Arbor Township Cemetery, located in the backwoods behind Boonedocks, has been buried in a tangle of trees since the brutal storm of August 2015. The place is dear to me because my first book, Aaron’s Crossing, began its life and death saga when I sensed a ghost there.
With the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Port Oneida Fair coming up this weekend, folks might notice that the landmark little white schoolhouse just off the junction of M-22 and Port Oneida Road looks better than it did a few years ago.
This Independence Day, Leonard Thoreson and his wife Sally (Salome) will be the honorary parade marshals in Glen Arbor’s Fourth of July Parade. Come cheer them on. The parade starts at Glen Haven around noon and winds down M-109 and M-22 through the heart of town.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore officials and volunteers honored Leonard Thoreson at this year’s Port Oneida Fair by giving the nearly-90-year-old a ride in the tractor he had donated to the Park three years ago (it was not in running condition then). Volunteers and staff sang an early “Happy Birthday” to Thoreson, who celebrates his actual birthday this November. Thoreson, a descendant of settlers at Port Oneida’s Thoreson Farm, was the longtime custodian of the Glen Arbor Township Hall and retired in 2013.