Posts

Recognizing National Historic Preservation Month in Leelanau

May is National Historic Preservation Month, a time set aside to highlight the important work of organizations working to preserve historic places like Port Oneida. Locally, in Leelanau County, there are 25 nationally recognized historic places and 18 additional state recognized historic sites, with several organizations which operate to support their preservation. Mae Stier writes that she and her husband Tim Egeler—a descendent of the Egelers and Kelderhouses, who were early settlers to Leelanau—spent the summer leading up to their wedding learning the names of family members. “When we committed to creating our future together, we did so by standing under a giant old oak tree that looked out at the Manitou Islands, on a farmstead that members of his family had once cared for.”

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Sleeping Bear Dunes hosts Maple Sugaring Days

It is maple sugaring time in northern Michigan, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is hosting its second public maple sugaring event. Maple Sugaring Days will be at the Dechow and Olsen farms in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3, each day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Experience the process of making maple syrup from start to finish and learn how maple sugaring has evolved over the last 400 years. Maple Sugaring Days is presented by the National Lakeshore in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear, and in collaboration with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians’ Natural Resource Department. On Saturday, March 2, join a Community Pancake Breakfast from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., just down the road from Port Oneida at CQ’s Cabin in the village area of The Homestead Resort.

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Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear raises funds to move barn from beavers, rising water

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Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear seeks to raise $50,000 to move the Goffar Barn in the National Lakeshore out of Narada Lake. The lake, east of the Port Oneida Rural Historic District, is a quiet spot to view wildlife from the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail boardwalk. But the 150-year-old barn is in danger of being lost, as its timber posts sit precariously in water and mud from encroaching water levels due primarily to beaver activity. The preservation project for the 25-year-old nonprofit is to move the barn away from the lake about 80 feet toward the Goffar farmhouse, which was recently restored by the National Park.

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Run to support Sleeping Bear Dunes preservation

The 11th annual Port Oneida Run— an event held by the Park’s nonprofit partner Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear—will take place on Saturday, August 5. 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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Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear celebrates 25 years of preservation in the Park

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From nearly abandoned and forgotten, the historic Katie Shepard Hotel, formerly known as “The Beeches,” on North Manitou Island is being preserved by Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear (PHSB). The hotel was constructed in 1895 and has been given a chance at a productive new life. The non-profit group, partner of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore since 1998, has been busy at the hotel preservation from 2009–2019, and returning this year to resume its work on this historic hotel. “It is our vision to reopen the hotel that drives our passion,” said PHSB executive director Susan Pocklington.

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National Lakeshore, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear debut maple sugaring days

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear will host Maple Sugaring Days at the Dechow and Olsen Farms in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District on Saturday, March 4, and Sunday, March 5 from 10 am-3 pm each day. Join park rangers, volunteers, and special presenters at this new event to learn the history of maple sugaring and the process of making maple syrup from start to finish.

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Port Oneida Fair features plays by Anne-Marie Oomen

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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.

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Port Oneida Fair returns to Sleeping Bear Dunes

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.

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Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear holds Heritage Tours

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear (PHSB), an official partner of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, is again offering ways for people to immerse themselves in the historic side of the park by offering Sleeping Bear Heritage Tours. The nonprofit operates the Port Oneida Farms Heritage Center staffed with their volunteer docents from Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. The Center is located four miles north of Glen Arbor on M-22 and the Heritage Trail near Port Oneida Road. Tour the exhibits in the Olsen Farmhouse and barn, enjoy the gardens, or take one of their family-friendly excursion tours.

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Biking through history with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear

Biking’s booming popularity, along with record-setting National Parks visitation over the past several years, is creating new ways to love our natural and historic treasures. Adding to these trends is a need to be outside while social distancing during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. And with the 22-mile long, motorless Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail traversing Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Susan Pocklington of Empire came up with a great idea. “People want to bike in the park,” said Pocklington, executive director of Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear (PHSB). “They ride past an old house or barn, and wonder about it. Why not learn about the history you’re riding through?”

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