In The News: Sleeping Bear Around The Web

From cool aerial photos of Manitou shipwrecks to pictures of the first piping plover to return to the Lakeshore in 2015—check out these and other links to the best Sleeping Bear Dunes news stories from around the web.

Piping Plovers Return

 Photo courtesy of the National Park Service

On April 18th, biologists at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore reported on the Lakeshore’s Facebook page that they had spotted a piping plover on the beach with the wholly unimaginative name, “BO;X,g.” The first plover seen by biologists this year, “Old Bo” also has the distinction of being the oldest male Great Lakes piping plover known.

Coast Guard Helicopter Discovers Manitou Shipwrecks

 

Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard, Traverse City Station 

Last month, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter patrol brought back some pretty cool aerial photos of underwater shipwreck fragments located just offshore in the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. The Traverse City crew posted six photos on Facebook like the one above that shows the wreck of the 121-foot brig James McBride, which ran aground during a storm on October 19, 1857. 

Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail Boardwalk Trail Improvement

 Photo courtesy of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail

 Oh, what a difference a week makes. On April 13th, the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail reported on their Facebook page that boardwalk construction was underway for a portion of the trail paralleling Westman Road. See photo above. Part of the three-mile trail from Glen Arbor to Port Oneida, the boardwalk section negotiates a swampy stretch of the bike path just north of Glen Arbor and is located just across the road from The Homestead, which posted the below April 19th Facebook photo showing the bridge near completion. Completion date for the entire three-mile section is slated for June 1st, weather permitting.

Photo Courtesy of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail  

April Lakeshore Visitors Double

 

 Ever since viewers of ABC’s Good Morning America voted the Sleeping Bear Dunes the “Most Beautiful Place In America” in 2011, the Lakeshore has continually set new records for the number of visitors venturing North to see what all the hubbub is about. Last month was no exception with a new attendance record of more than 2,200 visitors, according to 9 & 10 News. Park officials attributed the 50-percent uptick to warmer than average April temperatures.

Economic Report Shows Sleeping Bear’s Multi-Million Dollar Impact 

Photo courtesy of the National Park Service

 Traverse City’s The TICKER reported last week on a recent National Park Service survey showing the spending power of the nearly 1.4 million visitors who came to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 2014. According to the report, most visitor spending—amounting to $144.7 million in communities near the park—was “for lodging, followed by food and beverages, gas and oil, admissions and fees, and souvenirs and other expenses.”