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Everything old is new again. That’s not simply a cute quote or the title of a song—it’s what happens every year at the Port Oneida Fair. Haying the fields with horses. Making soap, churning butter, spinning fibers. Wood cutting with huge cross-cut saws (try it yourself). People dressed in turn-of-the-century garb (19th to 20th century, that is). Each August, amid the pastoral setting of meadows, maples, barns, farmhouses, and corncribs, the Port Oneida Rural Historic District awakens from its peaceful slumber. The district comes alive with activity true to the period when it was a community of robust farms.

Mark your calendar for the 2024 Port Oneida Fair at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Friday and Saturday, August 9-10, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each August, amid the pastoral setting of meadows, maples, barns, farmhouses, and corncribs, the Port Oneida Rural Historic District awakens from its peaceful slumber. The district comes alive with activity true to the period when it was a community of robust farms. Visitors are invited to step back in time to experience life as it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

History will come alive Friday and Saturday, August 11-12, at the Port Oneida Fair in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with demonstrations, food, and family activities at six different sites within the Port Oneida Rural Historic District.

Prolific local poet, memoirist, essayist and playwright Anne-Marie Oomen creates an enduring sense of place and history. From her memoirs about growing up in Oceana County (100 miles south of Leelanau), to poems that capture the magic of the Sleeping Bear Dunes and the western Michigan lakeshore, to history plays that re-create local characters and bygone times, Oomen’s work is always infused with images of the hills and the forests, the barns and the orchards, and the dirt and the compost of her native land. This summer two of Oomen’s history pieces will be performed as part of the Port Oneida Fair, sponsored by Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear and the Port Oneida Fair Committee with a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council.

The Port Oneida Fair returns to the Port Oneida Rural Historic District of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Friday and Saturday, August 12-13, following a two-year COVID-19 hiatus. Beginning at 10 a.m. each day, and running until 4 p.m., visitors are invited to step back in time to actively experience life as it was in this once active community of robust farms of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The fair promotes the preservation of rural traditional skills, crafts, landscapes, and communities of the Upper Great Lakes Region through education and artistic expression.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has canceled the Port Oneida Fair this year (it was also canceled in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Instead, the Park invites the public to a Port Oneida Sampler, which will be held on four consecutive Wednesday afternoons in August. On each day, one of the Port Oneida farms will open a barn or house for one-way traffic and tours and may have a demonstrator on site.

The coronavirus pandemic and need for social distancing has prompted the cancelation of this year’s Glen Arbor Fourth of July parade, the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb concert, the Manitou Music concert series, and the Port Oneida Fair.

Every August, the Port Oneida Rural Historic District awakens from its peaceful slumber and comes alive with activity true to the period when it was a community of robust settlers.

Once again, the Port Oneida Rural Historic District awakens from its peaceful slumber and comes alive both Friday and Saturday, August 10-11. Beginning at 10 a.m. each day and running until 4 p.m., visitors are invited to step back in time to actively experience life as it was in this once active community of robust farms of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The fair promotes the preservation of rural traditional skills, crafts, landscapes, and communities of the Upper Great Lakes Region through education and artistic expression.

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.