Brooke Baker of Traverse City danced for joy during her first snowshoe hike at Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Feb. 26—a beautiful, blue sky day with fresh, sparkly snow on the ground.
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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.
Explore Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at night on a candlelit winter hike on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 6-8 p.m. at the Dune Climb. Join park rangers and volunteers to explore the park after dark. Arrive anytime between 6-7:30 p.m. to enjoy the full experience. Hike one mile on flat terrain along a candlelit trail. The self-guided hike should take roughly 30 minutes to 1 hour. Bring your sense of adventure, enjoy a trail lit by luminaries, and engage with our knowledgeable rangers and volunteers. The event is free with a park pass.
The latest effort to combat beech bark disease is underway at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Seven tree saplings made from cuttings taken from resistant American beech trees at the National Lakeshore were grafted and planted in early November 2022. The successful project came as a result of five years of planning and research in partnership with researchers at Michigan Technological University.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is bringing back their free ranger-led snowshoe hikes this winter. Whether you are an experienced snowshoer or have never tried snowshoeing, the National Lakeshore invites you to join a ranger-led snowshoe hike to explore the park. The park is kicking off the winter season with two holiday hikes at 1 p.m. on Dec. 29 and Dec. 31 for all experience levels.
This summer, Petoskey-based writer Alexandra Dailey attended a national Road to Healing event in Pellston—part of a year-long tour by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (a Michigan native) to provide a platform for survivors of the federal Indian boarding schools to share their experiences and grievances. On Thanksgiving today, as she and her white family members gather and express thanks for their homes, shelters, and jobs, she plans to recognize her privilege of not having familial trauma associated with the Indian boarding school system. She writes in the Glen Arbor Sun that she will be grateful for the healing that is occurring within the tribal communities—grateful that she was able to witness the beginnings of the healing that is yet to come for our Native neighbors.
Picnickers who chose Good Harbor Beach to eat dinner and watch the sunset on Friday, Sept. 9, were surprised to discover they shared the popular beach in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with a real estate company, based in Traverse City, which erected a pop-up tent, placed a sign at the parking lot, and flew a drone above the shoreline. “The gathering itself likely does not require a Special Use Permit, but we are concerned with the corporate advertising and drone use in the National Lakeshore by this group,” said Sleeping Bear Dunes superintendent Scott Tucker.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has announced the next two Star Parties this fall. Join park rangers and astronomers from the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS) on Saturday, September 24, from 8 to 10 p.m., at the Dune Climb parking lot for the next Star Party of the 2022 series. Highlights will include the harvest moon (the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox), the planets Saturn and Jupiter, as well as star clusters, nebulae, and other deep-sky objects later in the evening.
The Sleeping Bear Gateways Council (SBGC) is hosting its annual meeting as a virtual event on Zoom at 5 p.m. on Thursday, August 25. The session will feature updates on the group’s projects as well as comments from leadership of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. All individuals with interest in the Sleeping Bear area are invited to join the meeting.
Here’s the story of Leland Public School reclaiming and reviving its school on North Manitou Island, which Abby Chatfield wrote in our August 11 edition of the Glen Arbor Sun. The first school on North Manitou was made of logs in 1895 and held 36 students. A new school was built in 1907 with a wood frame and front porch but was shut down in the 1940s as the island’s permanent population dwindled. Decades later, when Leland Public School discovered they owned this one-acre property, considered the home of Leland School District’s first school, all that still existed was the decaying framework of a one-room schoolhouse. Fast forward more than 25 years. Nick Seguin, a first and second grade teacher for Leland since 2009 who graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Natural Resources, spends his summers working as a guide for Manitou Island Transit. While hiking on North Manitou Island, Seguin came across the old school site, recognizing it by a crumbling foundation. Intrigued, he began to study plat maps and rediscovered the property deed, realizing that the land still belonged to the Leland School District.