vzOralHistory.org

Historical Images & Recollections from the Sleeping Bear Dunes Area

I was stationed to work as a Park Ranger at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore from 1984—2005. During that time I was lucky to have the chance to get to know most of the people still around Port Oneida, the lakeside farming community that was later to be designated a National Historic District. I first started taping some of their recollections in 1992, when Laura Basch happily filled some 14 hours of tape with her encyclopedic knowledge of Port Oneida goings-on, gained from a lifetime at the top of Basch Road. Since that time many others have shared stories, photos, documents, and whatever else might serve to give the rest of us some idea of how their community worked.

All of the recordings, images, and other materials I’ve been able to collect regarding Port Oneida and surrounding areas have been given to the National Park Service and the public domain and are free for your use at

Sleeping Bear Forever Archive

They are also being preserved and are available for public use at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library in Ann Arbor, and at the Glen Lake Library in Empire.

The following are books I’ve prepared to pass on some of what has been shared with me. They’re available for online reading or download here—

Books to read or download

(If you like good old-fashioned books made of paper, they’re available that way on each book's page.)

Here are the books that are for sale

(You know, paper ones.)

  • Vol. 1

    A Port Oneida Collection

    Meet the pioneers of Port Oneida, and those who followed—Mary, the hermit of Pyramid Point; Henry & Ernie, the odd but brilliant bachelor brothers; Lanie, the “Barefooted Fishergirl”; Elmer, the deaf wanderer; Katie, the midwife; and their neighbors. How did they go about their activities? How did they get along with one another? What did they have to say? How did they talk? What did they look like? What did they think?

    These are the sorts of things to be found in the oral history interviews, memoirs, photographs, and other records in this project and book. An Internet link to audio excerpts from some of the interviews is included, so you can hear the participants tell their stories in their own voices.

    It is Volume 1 of the Oral History, Photographs, and Maps from the Sleeping Bear Region 2-part set.

  • Vol. 2

    A Sleeping Bear Collection

    Let the people of the Sleeping Bear Region—past & present—tell you about themselves. Through oral histories, memoirs, and old photos, you can meet the early settlers and those who followed: the store-keeper’s free-spirited daughter; a hermit jack-of-all trades; a community grandmother; a midwife’s daughter; and others. What did they have to say? How did they go about their activities? How did they get along with one another? What did they look like? How did they talk? What did they think? Those are the kinds of things found here. An Internet link to audio excerpts from some of the interviews is included, so you can hear the participants tell their stories in their own voices.

    This is Volume 2 in the Oral History, Photographs, and Maps from the Sleeping Bear Region 2-part set, published in partnership with Sleeping Bear Forever.

  • Centennial Ed.

    Boudewijn & Kate and Their Family

    A book to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the purchase of the original DeKorne cottage at Glen Lake (Michigan), with history, stories, and photographs of this Dutch American family and their lives in Grand Rapids and at Glen Lake.

  • Dutch Colony

    A Farm Album from the Michigan Dutch Colony

    The story of the community of Netherlanders who came to Western Michigan during the mid–1800s—their background in Europe preceding the wave of emigration; the journey to America; the terribly difficult early pioneering years; and life during the decades that followed.