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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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National Lakeshore looks for algal blooms on North Bar Lake

Chris Otto, a water resources biologist at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, is keeping a close eye on North Bar Lake in late July and early August—often the warmest time of the summer—for greenish algal blooms and signs of cynobacteria at the popular swimming destination.

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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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Teach a child to fish and the fun lasts all summer

Always wanted to learn to fish? Curious about local fish species? Need more information about fishing regulations, or preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species? The wait is over! Stop by Loon Lake in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Saturday, July 2, for a day of festivities aiming to provide safe and barrier-free opportunities to engage youth (primarily K-5th graders) in fishing!

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Trees and Treaties: Exploring Anishinaabek Connection to the Plants and Policies around Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Summer programing officially kicks off Saturday, June 25, with two guided hikes as part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s Anishinaabe Lifeways project. Join special guest and Anishinaabe historian, Eric Hemenway, to explore the lakeshore while learning about the Anishinaabek connection to the area.

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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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Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak initiates North Bar Beach Cleanup

Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak in Empire teamed up with FLOW (For Love of Water), Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Surfrider NoMi, and S’well for an April 22 Earth Day beach cleanup at North Bar Lake.

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DeCook wins second M22 Challenge

Ryan DeCook, 41, from Washington, Michigan, won this year’s M22 Challenge with a time of 1:14:59. Saturday, June 11, was the perfect day for a race in and around the Glen Lakes. Sunny and a cool 64 degrees Fahrenheit made it an especially beautiful day in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

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Down on one knee at Pyramid Point

You don’t have to overturn many stones in Leelanau County—or initiate many conversations at Dick’s Pour House or Art’s Tavern—to find tales of couples who got engaged at Pyramid Point in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. But the story of Josiah DeValois proposing marriage to Anna Kenney on the Spring Equinox, March 20, stands out.

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Oldest hotel in National Park, Sleeping Bear Inn gets new lease on life

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On a blustery, cold April 8, with approximately 400 bundled, enthusiastic citizens as witnesses, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore superintendent Scott Tucker handed the keys of the Sleeping Bear Inn and Garage to Maggie Kato, executive director of the nonprofit Balancing Environment and Rehabilitation, which now has a 40-year lease to rehab the historic Glen Haven inn and re-open it as a bed and breakfast as soon as Spring 2023. Once resurrected, the Sleeping Bear Inn will be the oldest hotel in the National Park System where one can spend the night—even older than Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park, which was established in 1872.

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