Farming at the Water's Edge: An Assessment of Agricultural and Cultural Landscape Resources in the Proposed Port Oneida Rural Historic District at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan

McEnaney, Marla; Tisler, William; Alanen, Arnold

The proposed Port Oneida Rural Historic District is a former agricultural landscape located within the boundaries of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan. Currently, the National Park Service (NPS) is conducting a study of the importance of regional agricultural and rural features in order to define appropriate management guidelines for protecting both built and natural landscape elements in the proposed district. This study assesses the significance of Port Oneida’s resources and offers management recommendations for preserving those resources that contribute to the overall character of the cultural landscape. This document represents the second phase of an in-depth study of the agricultural history and related cultural landscapes found in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, located on the eastern edge of Lake Michigan. The first phase consisted of an overview of the region’s settlement patterns and agricultural development. The findings of the first phase of the study were published in "A Garden Apart: An Agricultural and Settlement History of Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Region." It provides the historic background and context for further detailed studies of specific landscapes within the Lakeshore. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the overall significance of the cultural resources of the proposed Port Oneida Rural Historic District within the context of three areas of significance: ethnic settlement, agricultural history, and rural architecture. Additionally, this assessment of significance is important in establishing criteria and guidelines for resource preservation and management that can be implemented by the NPS. This document includes a discussion of the ethnic backgrounds of Port Oneida’s settlers; a description of twenty farmsteads and the landscape features that contribute to the character of the district; and an assessment of the integrity and significance of cultural landscape features, including buildings, fences, roads, and vegetation patterns. Management recommendations were formulated for the study area after reviewing and analyzing other policies and programs regarding a variety of cultural landscapes in the United States and abroad. They were also defined following discussions with NPS personnel, landowners, and other interested local residents. This study has utilized a variety of primary sources, including early photographs and maps, archival documents such as population and agricultural census manuscripts, homestead and pre-emption records, and church data. Oral interviews and fieldwork also provided important information about the history and condition of Port Oneida’s cultural landscape. In addition to the earlier agricultural and settlement history of the Sleeping Bear Dunes region recently completed by Haswell and Alanen, several useful contemporary sources were utilized, including special histories of Port Oneida by NPS historian Ron Cockrell, and a draft Cultural Landscape Report completed by NPS historian Scott Searl and NPS landscape architect Michele D’Arcy. Also, National Register Bulletin 30 provided useful guidelines for assessing the integrity and condition of Port Oneida’s resources. Sections of this report address: defining the Port Oneida study area, an overview of Port Oneida's history, Port Oneida's rural landscape character, inventory of farmsteads, qualitative evaluation of the study area, Port Oneida's sense of place, and management recommendations. This includes maps depicting landforms, vegetation, open fields’ soils, and individual farmsteads. There are photographs showing farmsteads, structures, and landforms.

Farming at the Water's Edge: An Assessment of Agricultural and Cultural Landscape Resources in the Proposed Port Oneida Rural Historic District at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan

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