This week “The 1306” is taking a field trip up north to explore some of the history of Leelanau County, the inland lake it’s named for, and the people who call the area home. It’s a history that shares many striking similarities with Oceana County and some of the topics we have already covered this past summer: the logging industry, resort communities and the importance of water and transportation to the region’s developing commerce in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.
I spent several days earlier this week in Empire, Michigan, while dog-sitting for my aunt and uncle, and while I can entertain myself for quite some time with hyperactive golden retrievers and binge-watching "The X-Files," it was only a matter of time before I started itching for a historically minded excursion. I am pretty familiar with the area along the lakeshore and figured a trip to Leelanau County’s Historical Society Museum would do me well.
It helps, of course, that the 40-minute trip from Empire to Leland, up M-22, is absolutely gorgeous. Autumn is just barely coloring the trees at Sleeping Bear with brushstrokes of gold and red, like a kindling bonfire, and historic farmhouses stand watch over century-old farmlands. I passed by several one-room schoolhouses, now converted to community buildings or private residences.
The museum was just a couple blocks away from the main stretch through downtown Leland, sitting right beside the river as it winds through town to meet Lake Michigan. It’s a beautifully done museum - and I’ve seen more than my fair share of museums - with several different exhibits that cover a variety of topics.
The first exhibit one comes across as they enter features a sampling of the many different shipwrecks that pockmark the Manitou Passage, a remarkably shallow stretch of the Lake that encapsulates North and South Manitous and the mainland. This shallow water has allowed divers and archaeologists to explore shipwrecks that might otherwise be lost, studying the wrecks as they decay and bringing back artifacts, some of which are on display. Some of the wrecks featured in this exhibit are the “Alva Bradley,” the “Rising Sun,” the “Westmoreland” and the “Three Brothers” (not to be confused with the “Three Brothers II,” the fish tug that rescued survivors from the S.S. Novadoc wreck in 1940.) The shipwreck exhibit ties neatly into the adjacent exhibit, which talks about the luxury steamship “Manitou,” though it was spared the fate of the other ships featured in the museum.
The museum is also hosting an exhibit on Sugar Loaf Ski Resort until December. What’s remarkable about this one is that it is community curated, filled with oral histories and artifacts from local residents who recall the resort in its heyday in the 1960s and 70s. The collection is expansive and recounts the history of the land from a homestead at the turn of the century to its opening in 1947, its closure in 2000, and the intervening years as the site lay abandoned. I remember several years ago my parents took me and my sister on a drive through the area, and they stopped by as close as they could to the old resort, vacant, vandalized and generally pretty unsettling. With that memory in mind, it was a nice surprise to see such a well-curated space showing the resort in happier times.
Perhaps the most visually striking exhibit was the Anishinaabek Arts Room, where a collection of hand-crafted baskets and boxes made by Ottawa, Ojibwa and Pottawatomi tribes is stored. The baskets are constructed in all shapes and sizes, primarily made from the wood of ash and basswood trees, and woven with sweetgrass. The boxes are made of birch bark and meticulously decorated with porcupine quills. A tablet in the center of the low-lit storage room (perfect for the preservation of fragile, organic materials such as what makes up these boxes and baskets) provides a wealth of information on the Anishinaabek people, their crafts and the valuable, natural materials.
My favorite exhibit, however, was the "Life on Lake Leelanau" exhibit, much of which was made to supplement the short film featured in the exhibit, “Lake Leelanau: The Spirit of the Lake.” The film explores the geography and health of Lake Leelanau, the people that came to settle there and the towns that populate the lake today. The film itself was awarded the State History Award by the Michigan Historical Society last year. It’s no wonder why, as the film is well researched, beautifully shot and I’m pretty sure I watched it three times on loop in the exhibit. What stuck with me most from the exhibit was one section of wall that was designed to look like the inside of a cabin and decorated with items one would expect to find in an early 1900s cottage. For a second, I was transported back home, as I thought I was looking at our own Boynton summer cottage here in Mears.
