Maple City is nestled in the heart of Leelanau County in a grove of grand maples trees. The countryside around Maple City is hilly with many farms, orchards, and lakes. Many Maple City settlers came to the area because of the Homestead Act of 1862 which "allowed anyone to file for a quarter-section of free land (160 acres)." If the homesteader had "built a house on it, dug a well, broken (plowed) 10 acres, fenced a specified amount, and actually lived there" the land was given to that homesteader. "Additionally, one could claim a quarter-section of land by "timber culture" (commonly called a "tree claim")." A timber culture required that the homesteader "plant and successfully cultivate 10 acres of timber."
Maple City was founded in 1866 and was originally called Peg Town. In 1866 William Parks and J. T. Sturtevent built a shoe peg factory. When the post office was established in March of 1875 the name Maple was chosen, but the name Maple City was the one actually given. In 1890 a Friends Meeting House was built east of Maple City, and in 1916 the meeting house became a Catholic Church. Today Maple City is between Glen Arbor and Traverse City and just south of beautiful Lime Lake.
Wikipedia on Maple City
Here's a cool video from the tail-end of last winter. There's still a lot of ice boating going on!
My friends Micheal, Ingemar, Lisa and Rick of the band Song of the Lakes have a new DVD titled Live at Interlochen. It features a full-length movie of Song of the Lakes 25th Anniversary concert by Rich Brauer & Brauer Productions and the documentary Journey to Joy by Rebecca Glotfelty of Real People Media.
The DVD premiers at the State Theatre in Traverse City on Tuesday, March 25, 2008. Be sure to come because it's a fantastic show!
They'll have a link to order the DVD from their web site.
An animated version of the Leelanau Song. Written by Art and Hazel Oberhelman, sung by Amy Hubbell of the Leelanau Enterprise. Animated by students at a TAP workshop ... www.theartplace.org
Here's a video from the 2007-2008 ice wine harvest put together by Leelanau.com and Black Star Farms.
You can read more about their harvest and see some photos in The Ice Wine Cometh.
The area of this proposed sulfide mine is wide open, unpaved and unpowered. It is situated right in the middle of the largest undeveloped tract in all of Michigan. Its rivers and streams feed Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. What a terrible place for a mine. What a terrible threat to the Great Lakes.
-Former Michigan Governor William G. Milliken
On and off over the past few years, I've been working with some people who have themselves been working very hard to sound the alarm about a frightening and risky technology that goes by the very unsexy name of "metallic sulfide mining". Maybe if it was called "acid mining" or you could just hold up pictures like the one to the right, it would have been easier for Save the Wild UP to rouse alarm and outrage among Michigan's citizens. We are talking about a technology that has NEVER failed to pollute water when located in close proximity, that is being located in close proximity to Lake Superior, greatest of the Great Lakes.
Big Bay, the Salmon Trout River and the Yellow Dog Plains seem pretty remote way up there on the northern shore of Michigan. However, once the first mine has been permitted, others will surely follow. Some targeted sites like Menominee are on Lake Michigan, from whose bountiful waters and wild beaches many of us draw not just our livelihoods, but also a good measure of our joy.
I invite you to watch the video below with one of the founders of Save the Wild U.P., former Leelanau resident Dick Huey. Then come out to the Hagerty Center in Traverse City for the After Work Jam Session with Josh Davis this Friday (Sep 28) at 5:30 to hear some music and talk about what can be done to stop a destructive and ravaging industry that has no business in the Great Lakes.
Photo credit: Acid Mine Drainage at Sudbury, Ontario from Save the Wild U.P. Many more photos in the Save the Wild UP group (including some from recent public comment hearings) and much more information at savethewildup.org.
Garrett Peltonen (Priority Health) won the men's race of the Tour de Leelanau with a time of 4:21:03. He finished just 18 seconds ahead of Ryan Roth (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Scott Zwanski (Priority Health) finished third. In the women's race, Tina Pic (Priority Health) took the medal with a time of 3:17:58, defeating Laura van Gilder (UCI Cheerwine) in a photo finish with Julie Bellerose (Team Aberdeen) just 3 seconds behind.
They have posted complete results from the Tour de Leelanau web site, and we'll add links to other articles as they are published. Here's the Leelanau Enterprise story with some great photos. The article also says:
If things go as planned, the 2008 Tour de Leelanau will be held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Brown said with the Tour de Missouri endurance race being held over an eight-day period in September 2008, most of the professional race teams would not be available to compete in the Tour de Leelanau if it continues to be held on the third Saturday in September.
The photo above is In the peleton by John Clement Howe and you can get some great photos of the Tour de Leelanau from Flickr (slideshow) and check out a video of the start of the men's 2007 Tour de Leelanau and also the Herman Rd King of the Mountain on YouTube.
Robert Dobbie from the Wolverine Sports Club Elite Road Team has an entertaining racer's account of the Tour de Leelanau that you should definitely read for passages like this:
Tower Rd (mile 60) seemed shorter but steeper than last year, but I had pretty good legs for it. I also got an extra boost from what seemed like a hundred fans gathered Tour de France style at the top. We passed through single file to the sound of ear-ringing cheers and clanging bells. That was fun.
Between getting my first surfboard (Jamie says make that OUR surfboard) and the fall weather patterns here that seem to pile up the big waves, I've been spending a lot of time in or near the water.
Yesterday, a few brave souls (of which I was not one) took to the raging waters of Lake Michigan. You can also check out this brief video from yesterday at YouTube and this feature on surfing in Michigan and the Great Lakes from Absolute Michigan.
Photo credit: Pyramid Break II by Andy McFarlane (wallpaper sized version)
16 kids spent 4 days at a farm house in 'the Park' animating the '5 W's' (who, what, when, where and why) about our national treasure. Head down to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Visitor Center in Empire at 4 PM on Tuesday, August 21 to see what they had to say.
Get more at the Art Place web site.
