Thing to Do

Port Oneida Fair

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

A horse team pulls a wagon of people on a wagon ride.
Take a ride back in time at the Port Oneida Fair.

NPS

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Dechow's (Deco) 2-story house with a barn behind with towering silos surrounded in changing almost leafless trees and long yellowing grass.
Dechow House and Barn

NPS Photo

Dechow Farm

Music:

Hammered Sulcimer and other antique Instruments - Luke Kawecki

Activities & demonstrations:
Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes—Information
Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear – 2025 Poster Sales and Donation Can
Early American Michigan cricket 10-4 (Friday)
Horse and Wagon Rides, Horse teams working fields
Corn Shelling
Farm animals
Goats and Conservation Grazing
Milking Parlor tours and Calves
Donkeys
Family History with Paul Dechow
Mrs. Dechow leads tours of the Barn “The Past in Present Time”
NPS Interpretation – Natural and cultural history, educatio
Hand Weaving and Basket Making
Rug Weaving
Barn Quilt Artwork
Felting and knitting
Pottery and Glass Jewelry
Pottery, Fused Glass, Maple Syrup & Honey
Hand Crafted, USDA Organic, All Natural Ingredient Soaps, Lip Balms, Body Butter
Goat Milk Soap Making (Friday)
Handmade Crafts
Antique Bicycles
Leonard Thoreson Tractor Display
Model A Vehicle
Single Engine Motors
Wind-up musical instruments - Empire Area Museum
Internship Display
Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network
USLSS Surfmen

Food:
Schwenk’inWagon - Lunch, Saturday breakfast
Moomers’ Ice Cream
Amongst seeding green grass, a white farmhouse with red trimmed windows, a bright blue sky and several trees poking out from behind the house.
Kelderhouse Farmhouse

NPS Photo / A. Stotz-Ghosh

Kelderhouse Farm

Music:

Rigs and Jeels Celtic Band (Friday)
North Bay Celtic Band (Saturday)

Activities & demonstrations:

Kelderhouse family history presented by Thomas P. Kelderhouse descendants
Postal Service History of Port Oneida by the Leelanau Historical Society
Wreck of the Rising Sun by the Leelanau Historical Society
1931 Ford Model A by the Leelanau Historical Society
Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society stewards of The Poor Farm Barn
Revitalizing the historic apple orchard presented by Leelanau Conservation District
“Stations of the Storm” hands-on activities of the U.S. Life-Saving Service
Traditional Building Skills
North Manitou Photos
Rope Making

Olsen's white two-story farmhouse basks in the sun, red details of the porch overhang, and the red, blue, and white "open" flag greet you. Sides of the house with yellow scaffolding for a project, while the front porch is surrounded by green circular trim
Olsen farmhouse during preservation project

NPS Photo/ K. Maisano

Olsen Farm

Music & Oral Histories:

Musicians and storytelling – Norm Wheeler and Pat Niemesto
Dulcimer music
Hammer’d – dulcimer group - Saturday only at 2:15 pm
Tom VanZoeren – oral history recording; his books; Port Oneida History
Life and times of a Lighthouse/Lighthouse keeper – Ken P., On the hour.

Activites & Demonstrations:

Olsen Barn Tours
Root Cellar
Cooking /food-ways
Bread and butter making
Vegetable and Flower Gardening
Composting
Fishing
Children’s Lawn Games – Hoops, Graces, potato spoon, burlap sack, box hockey, croquet, bean bag
Old Tyme Photography – selfies in costume in barn
Washtub demonstration
Rug Braiding
Tatting, rug hooking
Knitting & crochet
Hand quilting
Tintype
Stamping
Preservation Station - nametage making using traditional methods
Chair Caning
Hewing & notching

Food:
Cherry Republic Ice Cream


Inside of a historic one-room schoolhouse, surrounded by a piano, chalkboard with the alphabet, and a map of Africa, Mrs. Peterson dressed in a long black skirt and white button-up shirt teaches today's youth.
Experience a one-room schoolhouse.

NPS Photo

Port Oneida School House

Activities and demonstrations:

11 am - 2 pm - School Days in the one-room schoolhouse
Junior Ranger Program with Historic Toys


2024 Fair Sponsors

Platinum $1000

Drs. Joanne Blum and Paul Dechow

Moomers Ice Cream

Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear

Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitor Bureau

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Silver $250

Northwoods Hardware

Art’s tavern

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Bronze $100

Good Harbor Grill

Last updated: July 11, 2025