Posts

Goats feast at Port Oneida

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The 20 goats had moved into Dechow Farm in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Port Oneida Rural Historic District just a few hours before, and already YouthWork director Bill Watson was laying in the grass near the goat pen and cuddling a couple kids who approached him. “He was a puddle,” said Amy McIntyre, co-owner of Pontiac-based City Girls Farm, which brought the livestock to Leelanau County on June 11 to graze in the fields and remove invasive species through the summer. This is the first year that Sleeping Bear Dunes officials embraced livestock grazing on Park land for a full season.

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“Accoutrements” captures Port Oneida farms

The farms of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore offer sweeping views of land, barns, farmhouses, and various outbuildings. They have interested painter David Giordan for decades. Driving up from their Lansing home, he and his wife would see the farms on their way to Lake Leelanau. One day they stopped and fortuitously met a park ranger who told them about the rich history of the Port Oneida farms. At that time, the National Lakeshore’s plan was to let the farms languish and be removed.

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Reading through the pandemic: new books by Leelanau authors

We’re home. We’re self-quarantining ourselves. We’re practicing social distancing. The restaurants and bars are closed. Crowds no longer gather. What better way to spend these pandemic days than to read books newly published by Leelanau authors? Here’s a roundup of local books, or books by local authors, in 2020:

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Glen Arbor Fourth of July parade, Dune Climb concert, Manitou Music concerts, Port Oneida Fair canceled

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.

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Port Oneida Collection features images, oral history, maps

Those who are interested in the Port Oneida historic district of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore might be interested to know that a new book about the place is now available. Tom Van Zoeren’s A Port Oneida Collection: Images, Oral History, Maps presents the story of each of the farms of Port Oneida, based mainly, as the title suggests, on oral history interviews conducted with residents of the community, and on photographs collected from them. It is illustrated with a detailed map of each farm.

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Historic Sleeping Bear hosts summer activities

For visitors looking for something to do beyond the dunes in the National Lakeshore, they might consider having fun in the cultural areas of the park. Historic Sleeping Bear, an official partner of the National Lakeshore offers summer activities for the family at the Port Oneida Farms Heritage Center/Olsen Farm 4 miles north of Glen Arbor, located on the Heritage Trail.

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Path to Pen writing workshops offered in Port Oneida Historic District

Calling writers of all skill levels to workshops in Port Oneida’s historic district. Join agroecologist and science educator Elise DeBuysser, and national park artist, Nancy McKay, on a writing tour of Port Oneida farms, gardens, and landscapes, on Aug. 17.

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Sleeping Bear Dunes offers Port Oneida Fair Fun

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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.

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Historic Sleeping Bear celebrates 20 years

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Historic Sleeping Bear (formerly named Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear) celebrates its 20th anniversary as a partner of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore working to preserve and interpret the historic structures, landscapes, and heritage of the National Lakeshore.

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Sleeping Bear Dunes offers antique apple, pear tree pruning workshop

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will host its popular annual pruning workshop on Friday, May 4, in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District.

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