Sight · Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
One surviving barn holds the story of a Port Oneida farm.
Overview
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The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Sleeping Bear Dunes Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this area
Bay View Trails: Farms or the Longer Ridge Loop“As you approach the Bay View trailhead, consider the Farm Loop for old fields, Port Oneida School and a tree-framed view of Lake Michigan.”
Plays on the road 0.4 mi from Joseph & Margaret Brunson Barn in the Parkwolf Sleeping Bear Dunes Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Joseph & Margaret Brunson Barn is a 40-by-60-foot gambrel-roofed barn in a small field below a gentle wooded slope. It is the only building left from the Brunson farm. Stop if Port Oneida’s farm history interests you; if your main goal is dunes or broad Lake Michigan views, this can wait. The barn is on Thoreson Road about a mile west of M-22, where the road turns south. Plan on an exterior visit: a public interior tour and marked visitor parking are not confirmed. The field and wooded rise give it a farm setting, so keep them in the frame with the roof.
Built around 1900, the barn stood on sandy, rolling ground that offered the Brunsons little beyond subsistence farming. Margaret was timberman Thomas P. Kelderhouse’s daughter; she married Joseph, and they raised five children. A local memory recalls her singing hymns as she played a foot-pumped organ. Their sons Joe and Archie eventually took over the farm.
The barn was scavenged and badly deteriorated before a local preservation effort helped save it. Donors, federal grants, volunteers and repair workshops supported the restoration, which included a new roof, hemlock-board siding and floor reinforcement. When the national lakeshore was established in 1970, the barn joined more than 300 other historic farm buildings that came into public stewardship.
Wildlife
27 sightingsPiping PloverMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
70 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
56 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
68 sightingsSandhill CraneMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
58 sightingsPorcupineMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
31 sightingsLoonMost seen around 5 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Sleeping Bear Dunes. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateBay View Ridge Loop4 mi · 2.5 hr · 0.4 mi awayLake views, Port Oneida farm history, and one honest uphill pull.
EasyBay View Farm Loop2.4 mi · 1.5 hr · 0.4 mi awayA 2.4-mile farm loop to a schoolhouse and Lake Michigan view.
ModeratePyramid Point Trail2.7 mi · 1.8 hr · 2.2 mi awayA short climb, then a bluff view across the Manitou Islands.
ChallengingSleeping Bear Point Trail2.8 mi · 2 hr · 4.5 mi awayGhost forest, open dunes, and Lake Michigan in one sandy loop.
EasySleeping Bear Point Spur Trail0.7 mi · 36 min · 4.5 mi awayA quick sandy walk ends at the Lake Michigan beach.
ModerateAlligator Hill Intermediate Loop4.7 mi · 2.5 hr · 4.5 mi awayA hilly forest loop to Islands Lookout and Manitou views.EasyAlligator Hill Easy Loop3 mi · 1.8 hr · 4.5 mi awayA forest climb opens onto Lake Michigan and the islands.ModerateAlligator Hill Advanced Loop4.6 mi · 2.8 hr · 4.5 mi awayFollow the steep southern loop to Islands Lookout above Lake Michigan.
Sight · 0.4 mi awayThoreson FarmAn old orchard grid marks Port Oneida's first market cherry farm.
Sight · 0.6 mi awayFrederick and Margretha Werner BarnA family farm moved south after a boundary dispute.
Visitor center · 0.8 mi awayPort Oneida Farms Heritage CenterA 1918 farmhouse with Port Oneida's first indoor plumbing.
Sight · 0.9 mi awayJohn & May Burfiend BarnAn 1890s barn with the machinery behind Port Oneida’s farm history.
Sight · 1 mi awayPort Oneida SchoolA one-room school, bell tower, hand pump and crescent-moon privy.
Sight · 1 mi awayDechow FarmPort Oneida farm history, told through a whole cluster of buildings.
Sight · 1 mi awayWilliam & Charlotte Kelderhouse FarmA farmhouse that held Port Oneida's store, post office and phone exchange.
Sight · 1.1 mi awayFred & Grace Baker Pig BarnOld walnut timbers carry an older Port Oneida story into this barn.Parkwolf’s Sleeping Bear Dunes ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
