Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park is a must-visit destination for those interested in northwestern Michigan's history, with historic districts that include the village of Glen Haven as a fascinating illustration of the region's early maritime and logging history.
The National Park Service purchased the entire village, including a handful of existing buildings, during the mid-1970s, and maintains it today with several restored buildings housing a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a couple of small museums.
While the village and its Lake Michigan shoreline is picturesque at any time of year, visitors particularly interested in Glen Haven's history may want to visit during the summer or early fall when most of the buildings and indoor exhibits are open.
The logging industry flourished in Michigan during the mid-1800s and, in 1857, C.C. McCarty established a settlement by building a sawmill and an inn on the beach west of Glen Arbor, the nearby village founded by his brother-in-law John E. Fisher. McCarty named his settlement Sleeping Bearville.
The small settlement got off to a somewhat sleepy start as area residents leaving to fight in the Civil War meant slower development. By 1865, McCarty built a large dock to take advantage of the village's protected harbor and proximity to logging operations as returning war vets spurred the village's growth.
Philo Chamberlain, president of the Northern Transit Company, acquired Glen Haven in 1878 as port for his 24-vessel fleet moving wood between Ogdensburg, New York, and Midwestern ports like Chicago and Milwaukee.
D.H Day was the company's agent in Glen Haven and a major player in the town's development during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Glen Haven had 11 buildings by 1881. Several of those buildings still stand as part of the park's historic site, including a general store owned by Day and the village blacksmith shop.
Day worked to diversify the village's economy. He established a cannery operation in the 1920s to process and ship cherries and apples to market from his own farm and 5,000-tree orchard.
In 1901, the Sleeping Bear Point life-saving station was built. Shifting sands forced the operation to move in 1931, but advances in technology like radar, radios, and helicopters made the station obsolete and led to its closing in 1941.
The heyday of the big steamer boats faded as trucking companies expanded and the state's highway system improved. By the late 1920s, few passenger or cargo ships visited Glen Haven, and steamer owners going out of business spelled the end of the town's role as a maritime and transportation powerhouse by 1931.
Some tourists visited the area from the mid-1930s through the mid-1970s for sand dune rides in Dunesmobiles, but those rides ceased with the park service's purchase of Glen Haven and the surrounding area to preserve as the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
The last remaining village businesses closed during the 1970s as the park service planned restoration of Glen Haven to pretty much its 1920s appearance.
Today, highlights at Glen Haven include:
The General Store, which displays and sells items like kitchenware, food, and toys during the summer. It is a visitor center for the village.
The blacksmith shop, one of the first buildings constructed in the village, is also open during the summer. Volunteers demonstrate the blacksmith's craft and explain the importance of the business during the village's early logging days, when blacksmiths helped keep the area's logging industry going with timely and expert repair of the logging equipment.
The park service restores the Glen Haven Cannery building as a museum, and it is the largest public exhibit of Great Lakes small craft and equipment.
The Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station and Maritime Museum stages re-enactments of life-saving rescue drills during the summertime.
Want to learn more about the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and its history? Check out Sleeping Bear: Yesterday and Today by George Weeks, which the National Park Service site recommends as a good source of regional history information and historic photos of the area.
History buffs might also enjoy learning about the area's agricultural history and another historic area at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore by checking out my recent story, Northern Michigan's Port Oneida Rural Historic District revisited.
© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved
Great Blog! I really like the layout of the site and the writing style. I also have a Midwest Travel website and wanted to pass along the word. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Matt http://midwestwanderlist.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Matt Altstiel | August 20, 2010 at 11:15 PM
Matt-Thanks for stopping by! I've been feeling a little lonely out here as blogs about our region often seem few and far between. But it's such a great part of the country to cover, and I'm sure we'll never run out of great material for stories :)
Posted by: Dominique King | August 21, 2010 at 06:33 AM