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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