Barn to Barn Trail Course

On Saturday, September 3rd, at 9 am, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear hosts their second annual Port Oneida Barn to Barn Run/Walk – a 5K on the Bayview Trail in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. 

Proceeds support historic preservation in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, recently voted as the most beautiful place in America by Good Morning America.  “What ABC didn’t mention in their wonderful coverage, is that in addition to its magnificent natural beauty, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore also boasts ‘one of the most prized historic landscapes in the nation’– an honor, and a treasure that contributes to this most beautiful place”, said Susan Pocklington, Director of the nonprofit park partner, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear (PHSB).

The fundraiser for PHSB helps stabilize, rehabilitate or restore the Park’s 366 historic farms, barns, outbuildings, log cabins, antique orchards, and maritime structures, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and “are very much a part of the uniqueness and serenity of the Park described in the TV video,” Pocklington added. “You really can’t beat having a run/walk in a National Park like this one, plus, the trail gives participants the opportunity to see the very resources we are involved in protecting,” commented Pocklington.

The course meanders through the Port Oneida Rural Historic District, passing old farmsteads and panoramic views of Lake Michigan. Kid’s can join in the fun too with a ¼ mile Kid’s Dash to the Schoolhouse.

Last year, 154 runners and walkers came out for the inaugural event which starts and finishes at the Charles Olsen Farm located right off the trail in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District, 3 miles north of Glen Arbor on M-22.  Praise from participants for the first-time event was gratifying to organizers: Lauren Hawthorne from Atlanta, Georgia wrote, “I loved the race!  I’m so happy I was there for the inaugural event and plan on making it an annual tradition.  The course was great and the views were wonderful”.

“My wife, son, and I enjoyed the inaugural Port Oneida Run.  The running trail, woods, and views were great.  We hope to participate with more family members next year,” remarked Garry Ringnalda from Alto, Michigan.

Suttons Bay resident, Amy Baker, commented, “I loved the run.  It is really a beautiful trail run.  Best trail run I did this year. Kudos to you and all your volunteers; I have been sharing how much I enjoyed the race with all my friends.” And Jack Gossett raved, “What a fun time.  It is hard to believe it was your inaugural event.  I plan on inviting additional family members for your next race.”

Pre-registration is $20 through August 27^th and $30 after that.  The event will be limited to 300 participants this year.

Hand-crafted plaques will be awarded to the overall male and female winners.  The number of age categories has been increased to nine from last year, with medals awarded to 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place winners.  The event offers the first 125 paying registrants a free 20 oz. aluminum imprinted waterbottle with carabineer. A post-race celebration includes tasty edibles along with some great free give-aways donated by local businesses.

 For registration and details, visit: www.phsb.org, or contact 231-334-6103.

Blog by Ileana Habsburg-Snyder

Empire, MI – Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (National Lakeshore) Superintendent Dusty Shultz is pleased to announce that the 10^th Annual Port Oneida Rural Arts and Culture Fair will be held August 12 and 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  In addition to the many popular demonstrations, animals and exhibits, the fair will be a zero-waste event, will feature a chicken dinner on Friday, and will end with an astronomy party on Saturday night to celebrate the milestone 10^th year.

Each August, amid the pastoral setting of meadows, maples, barns, farmhouses and corncribs, the Port Oneida Rural Historic District awakens from its peaceful slumber and comes alive with activity true to the period when it was a community of robust farms.  Once again, visitors are invited to step back in time at the two-day Port Oneida Fair on Friday and Saturday to experience life as it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Visitors can take the shuttle, drive, hike, or bike to the six unique historic sites where a variety of activities take place.  One can almost imagine the life of these farm families as the clip-clop of horse and wagon is heard toting visitors down Port Oneida Road on a scenic drive-by of the community’s historic homes, schoolhouse, barns and outbuildings.  Timber framers, candle makers and basket weavers will be demonstrating their crafts.  Potters and blacksmiths will be hard at work.  And oxen will be cutting hay in the fields.

Additionally, children can try their hand at the crosscut saw and other farm tools.  Do not miss the displays of wind-up musical instruments, flour sack dresses, and quilts, too.  Learn about knitting, soap-making, butter-churning, spinning, bee keeping and honey production.  Satisfy your curiosity and walk through many of the historic farmhouses and barns that will be open for tours. 

Interpreting the history of the Port Oneida Community and its settlers is an important aspect of the fair.  Who were the families that lived on these farms?  How did they live?  What did they do?  Park Rangers and families of Port Oneida residents will share these stories at various farm sites. Food will be available for purchase or you may pack a picnic lunch to eat on the trail or in a farm meadow. 

By partnering with Bay Area Recycling for Charities, the National Lakeshore will be going “green” and composting or recycling all materials possible throughout the fair.  The goal is to have a 95% recycle and compost rate.  Special bins will be placed at each site.  In order to reduce what is being put into a landfill, compostable service ware will be used.  These items (cups, plates, and utensils) are made from plant based materials and will break down in a compost pile within weeks, as opposed to plastics and paper material that would take generations to decompose in a landfill.

Also new this year, on Friday, August 12, starting at 5:00 p.m., Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear will present the Port Oneida Picnic; a chicken dinner for only $12.  Tickets need to be purchased in advance.  There will be music and activities to accompany dinner at the Olsen Farm.  Please contact Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear for ticket information at http://phsb.org.

Star Party (Spring 2011)

To close out the two-day fair, there will be a Star Party on Saturday, August 13, starting at 9:30 p.m. at the Thoreson Farm.  Join Park Rangers and the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS) to experience a form of recreation that has been enjoyed by many generations and continues today.  GTAS members share their telescopes and knowledge while viewing the sunset, Saturn, and the full moon.  Learn about astronomy as it was in the 1900s.  Remember to bring a flashlight for the walk back to your car. 

It is the mission of the Port Oneida Rural Arts and Culture Fair to promote the preservation of rural traditional skills, crafts, landscapes, and communities of the Upper Great Lakes Region through education, artistic expression and the development of a coalition of community organizations.  Port Oneida is the largest intact historic agricultural district in the United States that is fully protected within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  It is historically significant because it conveys the land use practices, architecture, and evolution of agricultural technology common to subsistent farms of the upper Great Lakes region.  The Port Oneida Rural Historic District contains 19 historic farms (four privately owned), more than 300 buildings, and over 3,000 acres of land.  In addition to the farmhouses, barns, and wonderful variety of specialized outbuildings, the historic district contains the fields, orchards, fence rows, roads, cemetery, forest and other elements that make up the historic landscape.

 All events are free after visitors purchase and display the National Lakeshore pass on their vehicles.  For more information and a schedule of events, please visit the park’s website at www.nps.gov/slbe or call the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Visitor Center at 231-326-5134.  Also, check out the National Park Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sbdnl.

Official Press Release from PRESERVE Historic Sleeping Bear

July 29, 2011

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Susan Pocklington (231)-334-6103, phsb@leelanau.com

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear is offering something new at the Port Oneida Fair this year.  They’ll be hosting the Port Oneida Picnic – an outdoor chicken dinner –on Friday, August 12 from 5 – 7 pm, as a fitting way to end the first day of the two-day cultural fair. The Northport Community Band, and fiddler, Bob Sadler and Company will entertain while you eat under the tent at the Charles and Hattie Olsen Farm in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District.  A corn-on-the-cob eating contest and other activities will add to the family fun.

Tickets are $12 each and must be purchased by August 9th to guarantee a dinner. After the 9th there will be only very limited tickets. The menu includes a ½ Grilled Chicken, Corn on the Cob, Potato Salad, Roll and Butter and a beverage.  For ticket information and purchase, go to www.phsb.org.  The Olsen farm is located at 3164 W. Harbor Hwy (M-22) about 3 miles north of Glen Arbor and just west of Port Oneida Road.  For further information please call 334-6103.

Port Oneida Fair Sign at First Historic Site

The Port Oneida Fair in Sleeping Bear Dunes is alive today and tomorrow with fun things to see and do. People of all ages were experiencing the rural cultural life of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. If tasting real honey and freshly churned butter is your style, then this is the place to be. Many demonstrations were taking place including weaving, quilting, rug making, pottery, and so much more. Musical performers were in abundance too. Great fun and educational experience for children.

Pottery Demonstration

Children Pet a Farm Horse

Children Learn to Be a Junior Ranger

Ranger Teaches a Youngster

Restored Thoreson Barn

Blacksmith Demonstration

Churning Butter Demonstration...Mmmmm!

Rug Hooking at Olsen Farm

Port Oneida is located a few miles north of Glen Arbor on M-22 just past The Homestead.

Blog by Ileana Habsburg-Snyder

Port Oneida Fair

Leelanau County and the Grand Traverse area are all abuzz about the upcoming Port Oneida Fair that will open this Friday and Saturday in Sleeping Bear Dunes…and for good reason. Port Oneida is a part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and has become a museum of Midwest and Leelanau history. Each year in August historic sites are open to the pubic for two full days from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Visitors participate in tours, demonstrations, and hands-on activities. There is no admission charge for the fair but a park pass is required. For lodging and dining recommendations, visit the Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitors Bureau.

Six historic sites host the demonstrations of traditional trades and crafts of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Some of the demonstrations include making items that were needed in every household including brooms, soap, rugs, pottery, baskets, candles, and cloth. Visitors can watch the tasks farmers used to perform, such as hand cutting a log or mowing a field. Visitors tour farmstead homes, outbuildings, an orchard, and a school. Park rangers and volunteers are available to answer questions. Visitors walk, drive or take a horse-drawn wagon between sites. There are many hands-on activities so children can experience what life was like before TVs, computers, lawn mowers and cell phones.

The historic fair is hosted by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, PRESERVE Historic Sleeping Bear, Glen Arbor Art Association, Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, Leelanau Historical Society, Leelanau Conservation District, Leelanau Chamber of Commerce, Manitou Islands Memorial Society, Michigan 26^th Civil War Re-enactors, and the Glen Arbor Business Association.

Port Oneida History

Historical records document that Port Oneida’s first resident was a German that landed in New York and then travelled by water to North Manitou Island in 1846. He worked as a fisherman for eight years when the US Government put settlement land up for sale. In 1852, Carsten Burfiend purchased 275 aces and built a home near Pyramid Point.  He continued to work as a fisherman and transported early settlers between the islands and the mainland. 

Other settlers followed and by 1860 Port Oneida had almost 90 residents, most from Germany and Prussia.  The early settlers worked as loggers and fisherman, and all built homestead farms to supply food for their families. Eventually businesses emerged to support the needs of the community, including a blacksmith, post office, general store and boarding house. Although almost all the settlers had farms, most were employed outside of these farms. Port Oneida was a close community of families that farmed the land for over 100 years working together, by going farm to farm harvesting and threshing.

The vast amount of trees in the area provided the lumber the steamships needed for fuel as they navigated the Lake Michigan waters. When the area’s dock was build a steamship named Oneida was the first to stop to refuel. The townspeople decided to name the town, Port Oneida, in honor of the first ship to visit its sandy shores.

The area thrived for many years, but with the advent of coal-burning ships, logging became a trade of the past. The loss of the logging industry had devastating effect on Port Oneida and by 1908 the town was abandoned.

Port Oneida is now within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore boundary and is one of the largest collections of farms from the early-settler time period that was never touched by modern technology. Today it is largest agricultural community in the United States under government ownership and protection.

Blog by Ileana Habsburg-Snyder

It is amazing what people can do when they have a passion, heart and work together to accomplish something great. When a few local citizens learned that over 200 historic buildings and structures within Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore were scheduled for demolition, they took it upon themselves to challenge the National Park Service. In a very short time the grassroots effort grew and in 1998 the Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear (Preserve) was born.

Preserve is now the only organization working with the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore as partner to preserve over 300 historic structures and cultural landscapes including farmsteads, cottages, barns, log cabins, inns, schoolhouses, fence posts, orchards, cemeteries and meadows. Their role is to raise funds and awareness of the preservation needs.

Preserve is doing a super job of involving the community, not only in raising funds but in the actual renovation of the structures. Most of the work is being completed by volunteers. Take a drive just north of Glen Arbor to witness volunteer carpenters, neighbors, and people from the community renovate the barns and outbuildings of a historic farm on M22. Preservation projects are scheduled throughout the summer and early autumn.

Preserve also has educational programs and events planned for the summer that you won’t want to miss. The Port Oneida Fair (August 13 – 14) offers two full days of demonstrations of the late 1800 and early 1900 traditions.

Visit the Programs and Events  for a calendar of events and preservation projects.

Blog by Ileana Habsburg-Snyder