Northern Michigan’s rural landscape — and its iconic, historic farm buildings — are the focus of Frankfort painter Ellie Harold’s exhibition at Center Gallery. “Barn Love,” a show of plein air and studio oil paintings opens July 5, at the gallery, 6023 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor.
The National Park Service at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will host a book signing with Anna Egan Smucker, author of the children’s book To Keep The South Manitou Light, at the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center on Tuesday, July 2 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Leelanau writer Kathleen Stocking reflects on her father, Pierce Stocking, who passed away the day after selling his vast tracts of land near Glen Arbor to the federal government. That land is now part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will again be hosting their successful barn restoration workshop June 18-22 at the Thoreson Granary and Corn Crib located off M-22 on Thoreson Road, four miles north of Glen Arbor. This year marks the 17th anniversary of the partnership between the Michigan Barn Preservation Network and the National Lakeshore in developing this series of “hands-on” workshops. The park and the Michigan Barn Preservation Network are providing the skilled labor to put on this workshop.
You can celebrate National Trails Day, June 1, on the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail (SBHT) at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. National Trails Day encourages all Americans to get outside to celebrate the importance of natural places where you can recreate, breathe some fresh air, and experience what nature can offer, including inspiration, education, solitude, amazing scenery, and peace of mind. There will be information, activities, and a refreshment stop hosted by the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes (FSBD) and Park Rangers along the first segment of the SBHT, which runs from the Dune Climb to Glen Arbor. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Parking is available at the Dune Climb, the historic village of Glen Haven, or in Glen Arbor at the lower Alligator Hill trailhead.
National Park week, which begins April 20, is typically an opportunity for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to strut its stuff and demonstrate its value to the local community a month before the summer tourism season opens with Memorial Day weekend. During this year’s National Park week, the Lakeshore will hold a water testing demonstration on Esch Road Beach, a swearing-in ceremony for junior rangers, a showing of the film Chasing Ice at the Empire Visitor Center and a star gazing party on Platte Point Beach.
Park Ranger-led programs will be featured at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Visit the National Lakeshore on Memorial Day Weekend and tour the Glen Haven Maritime Museum, watch a blacksmith, take some photos, and learn more about lighthouses, owls and other birds.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will host its annual pruning workshop on Friday, May 3, in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District. The workshop will be held at the Dechow farmstead in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District, four miles north of Glen Arbor on M-22 across from Port Oneida Road. Directional signs will be placed to help participants to the location.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is teaming up with the Clean Energy Coalition to reduce the environmental impact of its fleet by 15 percent and to share information about alternative fuels and fuel-efficient driving habits with the 1.3 million visitors who visit the National Lakeshore each year.
Effective March 1, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was required by “sequestration” (a series of automatic, across-the-board permanent spending cuts) to reduce its annual budget by 5 percent. The park must absorb that cut in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year that ends September 30. The federal law imposing sequestration requires that each park take this cut.