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Martin Hogan

Take Me There Tuesday: North West Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

Updated: Aug 10

Photos by Martin Hogan unless otherwise listed.


Grand Traverse County and Leelanau County are well-known locales for being

places to “get away”. They’re also a wonderful playground for exploring.

The MichiganScapes October Workshop is happening here. (Get your tickets today!)

• Traverse City State Hospital tour at The Commons

• Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — D.H. Day barn on-site

• Fishtown

• Fall Colors on Mission and Leelanau Peninsulas

Traverse City 1908


Traverse City State Hospital The former Traverse City State Hospital is immersed in

over 100 years of history.  The evolution from  a state run asylum to a thriving and

bustling community is the foundation of what makes The Village what it is today.

In January of 1882, Architect Gordon W. Lloyd of Detroit was chosen to design the

Northern Michigan Asylum. It was modeled in accordance with the Kirkbride Plan,

which consists of a center administrative section and wings on either side for housing

patients. Each patient room had a view of the outside, with a direct supply of light,

sunshine and fresh air.


The Northern Michigan Asylum was built more than six decades before the use of the

first psychiatric drugs. Founding Medical Superintendent Dr. James Decker Munson

believed in the moral treatment movement, which at the time was revolutionary. Central

to this belief was Dr. Munson’s philosophy that “Beauty is Therapy.” If patients were

surrounded by a beautiful environment, from the architecture to the campus grounds,

their emotional and mental state would be uplifted.


Dr. Munson made an effort to ensure that patients felt at home rather than trapped in

an unfamiliar place. Use of physical restraints was forbidden, except for the most

extreme patient situations. Meals at the hospital were served in dining rooms on fine

china glazed with the State Seal atop white linen tablecloths. Fresh flowers and plants

decorated dining tables & resting areas. Artwork and inspirational sayings adorned the

walls of the wide hallways.


The architecture of Building 50 in itself exemplified beauty & encouraged the very core

belief of Dr. Munson’s founding philosophy. It was built in such a way that each patient

room had a window & view to the outside. This let in an abundance of natural light &

allowed every patient the opportunity to enjoy a view of the campus, even if they weren’t

given the privilege to leave the building & walk the grounds alone.



Photo by Ryan Jakubowski.



Fishtown (Leland, Michigan) lies just south of an old Odawa village called Mishi-

me-go-bing, meaning "the place where canoes run up into the river to land, because they

have no harbor". White settlers began arriving in the 1830’s and took advantage of its

fishing. The first white settler, Antoine Manseau, built his home here in 1853. It grew

quickly with a saw mill and received a post office in 1857. The name lee land, which

came from stormy seas terminology “the quarter toward which the wind blows” being

exposed to winds from the north.


From 1870 to 1884, the Leland Lake Superior Iron Co. operated an iron smelter north of

the river mouth, supplied with ore from the Upper Peninsula and charcoal made from

local maple and beech timber; the charcoal was produced in fourteen beehive kilns near

the smelting furnace, which produced up to 40 tons of iron per day. In 1884, the plant

was sold to the Leland Lumber Co., which operated a sawmill on the site. Other sawmills

and shingle mills operated in Leland during the years 1885–1900.


As early as 1880, commercial fishermen sailed out of the harbor to catch trout and

whitefish, building wooden shacks where they processed their catch and serviced their

fleet. Up to eight powered tugs once sailed out of "Fishtown", as the buildings came to

be known. Today, the historic fishing settlement and two fish tugs , Joy and Janice Sue,

are owned by a non-profit organization, the Fishtown Preservation Society. Fishtown is

home to a working fishery and a thriving charter fishing business. The riverfront is

lined by a boardwalk and quaint shacks that have been converted into tourist shops.


Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a treasure to have in the state of

Michigan. There is the obvious attraction: The dunes.

Port Oneida features several farms free from modern development: Carsten Burfield

Farm, Charles Olsen Farm, Dechow Farm, Henry Eckerdt Farm, and the Thoreson

Farm.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has preserved several early farm

buildings from original homesteaders:


Glen Haven is a historic village which began in 1857. C. C. McCarty built a sawmill and

an inn on the beach west of Glen Arbor. He called the settlement Sleeping Bearville. A

dock was added in 1865, and he also built a sawmill on Little Glen Lake, where tugboats

could transport logs. Once the lumber was cut up, it was transferred to the Glen Haven

dock by wagon or sled.


Glen Haven's development slowed when many of the settlers left to fight in the Civil

War. Through the Homestead Act of 1862, returning Union soldier P. P. Smith became

foreman for the Northern Transit Company (NTC) at the Glen Haven cord wood station.

He later became Glen Haven's postmaster.


D.H. Day is a well known name in the area because he built a barn that is now a very

popular photography subject for many enthusiasts.


D. H. Day lived in a 2-room suite on the second floor of Glen Haven's Sleeping Bear Inn

from 1878, when he arrived, until 1889. In 1889, D. H. Day married Eva Farrant, the

innkeeper's daughter. The newlyweds moved into an apartment above his general store.

The property included a granary, root cellar, and icehouse capable of holding 5,000

blocks of ice cut from Glen Lake, each weighing 150 lbs.


Photos by Ryan Jakubowski


Shalda’s Cabin The cabin at Shalda Corner in Leelanau County has been restored.

The locale was originally known as North Unity. This cabin was originally built in the

1860's. Joseph Shalda settled North Unity in 1855.

Fall Colors on the Mission Peninsula and the Leelanau Peninsula are not to be missed.

Mission Peninsula:

• Leffingwell Forest Reserve

• Old Mission Point Park (includes a lighthouse)

• Brinkman Bog Nature Preserve

Leelanau Peninsula:

• Graham Greene Park

• Finton Natural Area

• Leelanau State Park

• Grand Traverse Lighthouse

• Kehl Lake Natural Area — The Leelanau Conservancy

• Jeff Lamont Preserve — The Leelanau Conservancy

• Houdek Dunes Natural Area — The Leelanau Conservancy

• Good Harbor Bay Beach

• Palmer Woods Forest Reserve

• Krumwiede Forest Reserve

• Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground


Hodges School If you’re traveling to to Traverse City, using the M-113 route, there is a

photogenic one-room schoolhouse worth stopping for: Hodges School. It had its

beginnings in 1876.


Round Barns Heading towards Traverse City from the M-113 route, one can take a

short sidebar onto Clous Rd. and Red School Rd. to see two round barns of the area.


There are so many place names that have come and gone in the area of our October

Workshop, one may wish to further explore on your own: Tunk, Aral, Onominee,

Isadore, Mabel, North Unity, Manseau, Crescent, Jacktown, Bingham, Fouch,

Snowflake, Williamsburg, Bodus, Schomburg, Burdickville, Keswick, Karlin, Wallin, and

so many more!


Book your stay for our October workshop here!: Michiganscapes.com/events


Martin Hogan.



Lake Dubonnet State Forest Campground in October.

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