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Sleeping Bear Forever: new name reflects expanding mission

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A weathered red barn leans gently into the wind at Port Oneida. Rows of apple trees still mark orchards planted generations ago. White farmhouses sit beneath towering maples, their porches looking out across fields first cultivated more than a century ago. In Glen Haven, restored maritime buildings recall an era when steamships connected isolated shoreline communities and commerce shaped life along the lakeshore. These places don’t command the same attention as the dunes. Yet, together they reveal the history, culture and character that give Sleeping Bear its soul. Helping people discover that story has become the defining mission of the nonprofit formerly known as Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear. Now approaching its 30th year, it is entering a new chapter with a new name: Sleeping Bear Forever.

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National Lakeshore, Preserve Sleeping Bear host Maple Sugaring Days

March is maple sugaring time in northern Michigan. An annual Maple Sugaring Days event presented by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear will be held over two days–March 7-8 at the Olsen and Dechow Farms. Saturday hours are 10 am-3 pm and Sunday hours are 11 am-3 pm. Maple Sugaring Days offers a variety of demonstrations and hands-on activities to get outdoors and learn about the history of maple sugaring.

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Preserve hosts Page to Page: A Writing and Hiking Experience

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear is offering the return of the program, “Port Oneida Path to Page” on Friday, Oct. 17, from 12-4 pm, for writers at any level, but especially for those interested in creating history-inspired pieces. Participants will explore their creative muse hiking this fall through select farms, woods and fields of the lovely Port Oneida historic region with local poet and playwright Anne-Marie Oomen.

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Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear holds Port Oneida Run

The 13th annual Port Oneida Run—an event of the National Park’s nonprofit partner Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear—will take place on Saturday, August 2. The run starts and ends at the big red barn and lawn area at the Olsen Farm/Port Oneida Farms Heritage Center, 3164 W. Harbor Hwy, (M-22) Maple City, MI, just four miles north of Glen Arbor.

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Preserve holds Thoreson Farm plein air event for Port Oneida Fair poster

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear invites artists to the Thoreson Farm in Port Oneida, for a Plein Air Event on Saturday, May 24, from 9 am to 4 pm. The event is to encourage artists to paint and submit artwork of the farm to be considered for the 2025 Port Oneida Fair poster.

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Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear appoints new board chair

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear welcomes the appointment of Tom Whitaker as their next Chair of the Board of Directors. Whitaker first became involved in Preserve as a volunteer on North Manitou Island projects in 2012, and later wrote their Historic Structures Report for the island’s Boardman Cottage. In 2023, Tom joined Preserve’s Board where he has been an active member of the Preservation Projects Committee.

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Preserve celebrates 25 years with Greg Sobran poster

To mark its 25th anniversary as a National Park partner, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear is selling a commemorative poster of the Olsen Farm by Greg Sobran as part of the nonprofit’s anniversary activities. Visit PHSB.org to learn more.

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Big Band by the Barn fundraiser marks Preserve’s 25th anniversary

Spend a summer evening in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore swinging to the ever-popular tunes of the big band era at one of the national park’s historic farms. A “Big Band by the Barn” fundraiser will be held Thursday, Aug. 15 from 5-9:30 pm and promises to be a unique event at the Port Oneida Heritage Center/Olsen Farm located 4 miles north of Glen Arbor. The celebration supports National Park partner, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear, marking their 25th year in service to Sleeping Bear Dunes, helping to preserve the 19th century historic properties and stories within the Lakeshore that at one time were at risk of being lost.

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Port Oneida Fair marries old with new

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.

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Port Oneida Run supports Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear

The 12th annual Port Oneida Run—an event of the National Park’s nonprofit partner Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear—will take place on Saturday, August 3. The run starts and ends at the big red barn and lawn area at the Olsen Farm/Port Oneida Farms Heritage Center, just four miles north of Glen Arbor. It is the only race that winds through the beautiful scenery of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Port Oneida Rural Historic District. With its historic farms and barns, Port Oneida is hailed as one of the most prized historic landscapes in the country and should be on every runner’s bucket list.

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