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photo: Dream On by Kenneth-Snyder

EMPIRE, MI - The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (National Lakeshore) will be offering a series of monthly astronomy programs this year. Join Park Rangers and the  the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS) for a guided exploration of our night sky and one daytime event. The next Star Party is May 11 with a viewing of the closest star - the sun. Each special event takes place at a different location throughout the National Lakeshore to take advantage of strategic viewing opportunities. Come for star gazing, meteor showers, sun viewing, and storytelling. Kids of all ages can participate in the Night Sky Junior Ranger program.

Visitors enjoying park skies at a Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Star Party. Photos courtesy of the National Park Service

Starry night skies and natural darkness are important components of the special places the National Park Service protects. National parks hold some of the last remaining harbors of darkness and provide an excellent opportunity to experience this endangered resource. So visit the National Lakeshore and enjoy park skies by attending the following Star Parties:

May 11 (12:00-2:00 p.m.), Visitor Center Parking Lot in Empire
This is a daytime Star Party to view our closest star - the sun. View the sun using a solar telescope and solar shades. See solar activity, including flares and prominences.

June 8 (9:00-11:00 p.m.), Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive #3 Overlook
View Saturn, the Milky Way, and various constellations. Meet at the Dune Overlook #3, Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. Please park at Picnic Mountain; the next right after the #2 stop.

July 13 (9:00-11:00 p.m.), Platte River Point
View the moon, Saturn, and various constellations.

August 10 (9:00-11:00 p.m.), Thoreson Farm in Port Oneida
The Port Oneida Fair celebration continues into the night. View Saturn and the Perseid meteors.

September 7 (9:00-11:00 p.m.), Dune Climb Parking Lot
View the summer Milky Way and many Deep Sky Objects.

October 21 (8:00-10:00 p.m.), Dune Climb Parking Lot
Celebrate the 43rd anniversary of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with a starry event.

For all astronomy events, bring a flashlight for the walk back to your car and bug spray, if needed. Park Rangers and GTAS staff will be wearing red glow bracelets at the events.

The monthly Star Parties will be cancelled during inclement weather. The decision is usually made three hours in advance. Please call Park Rangers at 231-326-5135, ext. 331, for a voicemail message with the decision.

All programs are free. Participants need only purchase the Park Entrance Pass or have an Annual Pass displayed in their vehicle to join in the fun.

For more about the National Lakeshore, please go to www.nps.gov/slbe or their Facebook and Twitter.

Via Michigan in Pictures...

Spring on Good Harbor Bay, photo by Eric Raymond

Good Harbor is located on the northern edge of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at the Lake Michigan end of County Road 651. Today only evidence of the vanished village are the pilings of what was once a 500' dock that could load 4 schooners at a time. The Good Harbor page from the Lakeshore explains that logging in the area began in 1863 to supply cordwood fuel for  steamers, leading to the founding of a village in the 1870s.

Shortly after 1880 (Henry) Schomberg bought out Schwartz's interest and built a big sawmill which had a capacity of 30,000 feet in a 10-hour day.

...The Schomberg Lumber Company ran a hotel, two stores which became a shopping center for the local farmers, and a saloon. The township line between Centerville and Cleveland townships ran down the middle of Main Street in Good Harbor. Centerville did not allow saloons, so Good Harbor's saloon was built on the Cleveland township side of the street ... At the height of the lumber business, the mill worked day and night during the winter and during the day in the summer. As many as 75 teams of horses were used hauling logs to the mill, lumber to the dock, and supplies to the camps. The lumber company owned some of the teams and the rest were owned by local farmers and rented to the lumber company. At its peak, the mill cut 8,000,000 board feet of lumber per year.

The schooners were loaded by farmers who were called to work at the dock when the ships arrived. Good Harbor had no protection from storms with a northwest wind, so ships had to leave the dock and sail to the Manitou Islands for protection when a storm would come up. Sometimes storms would come up too fast and the ships were driven aground.

You can read on for more and also see some of the wrecks in the area in the Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve.

Check this out bigger and see more great photos from the Sleeping Bear and Leelanau Peninsula (including another shot of the pilings by Terry Clark) on Eric's Leelanau County Facebook page.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Park IS open. You can enjoy trails and other amenities. 

While the sequestration - the automatic, across-the-board permanent spending cuts that was triggered by  the Federal Government's inability to come to a budget deal - is a largely ephemeral concept for most so far, it has some very real consequences for Leelanau's #1 tourist attraction.

On March 1, 2013, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was required to reduce its annual budget by 5%. That's a $234,000 reduction from a budget of $4,676,000, and as the fiscal year ends September 30, they have just 7 months to make the required reductions. Superintendent Dusty Shultz explains that, “The park remains open, welcoming visitors and continuing to protect the resources entrusted to our care.”

Here are the major actions being taken to implement the cut:

• Staffing and fixed costs like utilities make up about 98% of the park’s budget, and they shortened 22 seasonal positions and cut 5 seasonal jobs.
• Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive will not open until Memorial Day Weekend and will close after Labor Day.
• Ranger programs, including environmental education programs for school groups, will not be available until Memorial Day Weekend and will cease after Labor Day.
• Other than those at the Visitor Center and campgrounds, restrooms and trash cans will not be available until Memorial Day Weekend and will close after Labor Day. This includes the Manitou Islands.
• Mowing of picnic areas and historic farmsteads will be sharply reduced.
• Protection and monitoring of the endangered Piping Plover will be sharply reduced.
• Follow-up control of invasive plants such as black locust will be sharply reduced.

Photo credit: Manitou Island Park Ranger by lee.ekstrom

Last weekend, Leelanau resident Leda Olmsted came across a rare phenomenon on the Lake Michigan shore at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. From a feature in the Grand Rapids Press:

Sleeping Bear Park Ranger Amie Lipscomb said no weird weather is required to create the ice boulders. The rounded ice forms the same way the rounded and smooth stones that wash up on the beach form. Chunks of ice break off from the large sheets that form over Lake Michigan. Waves tumble and pummel the ice, rounding and smoothing edges, Lipscomb said. The waves then wash the boulders up on shore.

Recent high winds have whipped up strong waves along Lake Michigan.

"Along the shoreline, lots of different ice formations form because of the waves crashing along the beach," Lipscomb said.

Leda also appeared on the Weather Channel!

A new National Park Service report shows that the 1,348,304 visitors to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 2011 spent almost $133 million in communities surrounding the park, supporting an estimated 2,347 jobs in the local area. The information on Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is part of a peer-reviewed spending analysis of national park visitors across the country conducted by Michigan State University for the National Park Service.

Park Superintendent Dusty Shultz explains: “Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a wonderful place to learn about America’s story. We attract visitors from across the U.S. and around the world who come here to experience the park and then spend time and money enjoying the services provided by our neighboring communities."

Most visitor spending supports jobs in lodging, food, and beverage service (63 percent), followed by recreation and entertainment (17 percent), other retail (11 percent), transportation and fuel (7 percent) and wholesale and manufacturing (2 percent).

Photo credit: "Empire Bluff" Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore by Michigan Nut

MyNorth highlights the Leelanau Outdoor Center's 1st Annual Snowshoe Stampede. It takes place this Saturday (February 2nd) at 10:30 at the Leelanau Outdoor Center on Port Oneida.

There's a 5K Race and 1 Mile Snowflake Race for kids 12 and under, food & entertainment at the Lodge and proceeds go to Tuition Assistance for schools to attend the LOC, a great resource for outdoor education for area schools.

Early registration is $15 and includes lunch, Day of race registration is available at $20. Snowshoe rental is available as well: $12 for adults, $8 for kids.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore invites you to burn calories and have fun snowshoeing in the Lakeshore (National Lakeshore). A Park Ranger will lead snowshoe hikes through a winter wonderland of forests, fields, beaches and historic sites in the National Lakeshore every Saturday this winter.

The first hike is on Saturday, December 29, 2012 at 1:00 PM. Be prepared and plan to be outside until about 3:00 p.m. Dress in layers and wear waterproof boots to be most comfortable. Like all hikes, you start at the National Lakeshore Visitor Center in Empire. If you don't have your own snowshoes, they will be loaned out at no charge and basic snowshoeing instructions will be provided. If there's not enough snow for snowshoeing, Park Rangers will still lead interpretive hikes each Saturday throughout the winter.

Since the National Park Service has a supply of snowshoes for use within the National Lakeshore, participants need only purchase the park entrance pass or have an annual pass to join in the fun. Reservations are highly recommended. Park Ranger-led snowshoe hikes are limited to 30 participants. For more information and to make reservations, please call the National Lakeshore at 231-326-5134, extension 328. You may also visit their website at www.nps.gov/slbe. Also, check out their Facebook page and Twitter site.

Thanks to John McCormick of Michigan Nut Photography for this post!

"Graveyard Shoals" Wreck of the SS Francisco Morazan by Michigan Nut

Wikipedia says that the Francisco Morazan was a 1,442 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1922 as Arcadia by Deutsche Werft, Hamburg, for German owners. She was sold in 1924 and renamed Elbing She was seized by the Allies in the River Elbe, Germany in May 1945, passed to the United Kingdom's Ministry of War Transport and renamed Empire Congress. In 1946, she was allocated to the Norwegian Government and renamed Brunes.

Brunes was sold into merchant service in 1947 and renamed Skuld In 1948, another sale saw her renamed Ringas. In 1958, she was sold to Liberia and renamed Los Mayas and then Francisco Morazan (for Francisco Morazán) the following year. She served until 29 November 1960 when she ran aground in Lake Michigan and was declared a total loss.

You're invited to join the free Worldwide Photo Walk at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore this Saturday (Oct 13) from 9:30 - 11:30 AM.

This free photo walk starts at the Glen Haven Cannery Boathouse is open to anyone with a camera who loves to take pictures and enjoys meeting fellow photo enthusiasts. They had over 50 people last year from all over the Great Lakes region last year, so sign up fast right here to make sure you are on the list!!

The photo was taken by walk leader Ken Snyder, who also took the photo above - see it background big right here!

Today's Michigan in Pictures reports that NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (a great resource for alerts on the aurora borealis) says that the Earth remains under the influence of a September 27 coronal mass ejection (CME)  that has reached the G3 (Strong) level. Auroral activity is possible through tonight, and they were seen last night at least as far south as Cadillac!

Much more about this amazing phenomenon in the northern lights category on Michigan in Pictures and see more aurora borealis photos from Leelanau as well!

Check this out background big and in Kenneth's Sleeping Bear Dunes slideshow.