A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So said Juliet in the Bard’s most famous work. But would Leelanau really be such a land of delight if that’s not what its name really meant? Spoiler alert: The name Leelanau doesn’t come from any Native American source. That’s despite the stories that have sprung up around it, some of which were spread by the person who came up with the name. Many of the county’s locations have stories surrounding their names. Start with Sleeping Bear Dunes, the story of which is well-known. Mama bear and her cubs swam across Lake Michigan to escape a forest fire. When Mama reached shore, she looked back, waiting for her cubs. She eventually became the sand dunes, while the cubs became the Manitou Islands.
