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Michael Huey in the last couple of days of a Kickstarter project to fund Straight as the Pine, Sturdy as the Oak. This new book will tell the history of Camp Leelanau for Boys, the Leelanau Schools, and the Homestead in Glen Arbor from their beginnings around 1920 until 1963. Richly illustrated, the book makes use of the Leelanau School Archive as well as the extensive private archives of the Beals and Huey families to draw back the curtain and tell a behind-the-scenes tale; as such it is a personal journey back through the development of the camp, the school, and the Homestead, told chiefly through vintage photographs, the detailed timeline, and individual short essays. It will be of interest to all who love the Leelanau peninsula and its history and, in particular, to those who have attended – or now attend – Camp Leelanau and/or the Leelanau School, as well as those who summered at or nearby the Homestead or live on the premises now.

Head over to Kickstarter for all the details, and watch the video and read about the project below! (more...)

via Michigan in Pictures...

Cherry Orchard ... spring snow, photo by Ken Scott

The National Weather Service noted that the high temperature yesterday at the Otsego County Airport in Gaylord only reached 35 degrees - a new record for the coldest high temperature for the date that crushed the previous record of 44 degrees from 2003. It was also the coldest high temperature ever recorded in the month of May for Gaylord. They notched a record snowfall of 2 inches as well.

At at balmy 42 degrees, we weren't quite as cold as the center of the state. We did record a low of 27 degrees overnight, just 4 degrees off the 1976 record so stay tuned for a report on the effects. Tart cherries were just getting ready to pop - here's hoping that still happens!

View Ken's photo on black and see more in his massive Leelanau slideshow.

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.

Here's a pre-1970 photo of the harbor - quite a change from today!

Check out Don's photo of the Leland Harbor bigger!

via Michigan in Pictures...

Comet Pan-Starrs ... 3-17-13, photo by Ken Scott

EarthSky.org is a fantastic site for all things astronomical, and their post detailing everything you need to know about Comet PANSTARRS has great info on the first of 2013 major comets. The comet was discovered by the PANSTARRS telescope in Hawaii and they explain that:

Comet PANSTARRS is still visible through binoculars in the Northern Hemisphere, if you know right where to look. Note where the sun sets in the west. Some 60 to 75 minutes after sundown, seek for the comet about two to three binocular fields to the right, or upper right, of the sunset point on the horizon. Comet PANSTARRS now sets at nightfall or very early evening at mid-northern latitudes. From here on out, the comet will dim a bit day by day, while the waxing moon will brighten daily. So it’s hard to say how much longer Comet PANSTARRS will be readily visible through binoculars. Each day, Comet PANSTARRS goes a few degrees northward (to the right) on the sky’s dome, toward the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen.

...No matter how bright it gets in March, the comet will surely fade as April arrives, as it moves away from the sun and back out into the depths of space. But it will be located far to the north on the sky’s dome and will be circumpolar for northerly latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. That means it might be visible somewhere in the northern sky throughout the night for northern observers. What’s more, the comet will be near in the sky to another beautiful and fuzzy object in our night sky, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the nearest large spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. If the comet truly is bright then, and if it still has a substantial tail, it’ll be an awesome photo opportunity!

Read on for more and also check out the michpics post on Comet ISON which has the possibility of  being so bright that you can see it in the daytime!

Ken shot this last weekend. You can see it on black, check out the sunset he captured before this and see more great work in his Night Sky slideshow. If you're looking to purchase this or other shots, definitely head over to KenScottPhotography.com!

More nighttime photography on Michigan in Pictures.

Rudy Malmquist was up in Leelanau last weekend on the Empire Bluffs.

This winter is amazing - if you snowshoe, ski or otherwise like to get out in the winter, conditions are amazing!

Jump into his slideshow for more, and also get more Empire Bluffs on Leelanau.com!

Photo: The Bluffs by Rudy Malmquist

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

Chicago Tonight had an in-depth feature (with video) on the lowest Great Lakes water levels in recorded history that features Leland and Leelanau County that begins:

2012 was the warmest year on record according to NOAA, the nation's climate monitoring service. The Midwest was also in the grip of a severe drought. Those two factors have led to the lowest water levels in history for Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, which is considered one body of water hydrologically. The impact of the low lake levels on those who live on the Great Lakes is heavy.

Leland Harbor is the heart of a northern Michigan town. The small town is quiet in the winter, but the population jumps ten-fold in the summer when tourists flock to the harbor, beaches and quaint shops. That tourist economy is now in jeopardy because of the dramatic drop in Lake Michigan's water level.

Harbor master Russel Dzuba said the lake is down more than two feet from its average, and that drop is threatening to close the harbor.

“The economic impact this harbor has on the community is strong. And when things are slow, the guy at the grocery store, the guy at the restaurant comes down and asks me what's going on. They want to know,” said Dzuba. “So, it’s an economic punch that we hate to think what happens if we cant keep that channel open.”

Click through for the video!

Photo Credit: "... is the Lake Michigan water level low?" by Ken Scott was perfect for this feature!

Ken's Shoreline Ice photo was taken on Saturday - click here for a shot with Ken to see the scale!

Amazing what Lake Michigan can do with a little wind and 12 degrees!