Leonard helps his dad, driving the Ford 9N while Ole mans the binder.  (Note the barn and associated buildings, now all gone, from the Fred & Ellen Miller Farm in the background to the north.)  “When school started the last year, I was up on the hill, back on the farm plowin’.”   Like most Port Oneida farmers at that time, Leonard found that farming was at best a supplementary source of income.  At the end of the last year after he took over operating the farm for his dad, he figured things up—Total profit, $700.  “I figured I could surely do better than that,” and took a job doing maintenance at Leelanau School.

Ole subsequently sold the farm to Arthur Huey, who needed hay for his horses at the nearby Circle H Riding Stable.  Huey rented the house out and leased unneeded fields to neighboring farmers until 1979, when he sold the farm and other property to the new Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for $1.3 million.  Hikers, skiers, hunters, and others have made good use of the fields and woods since that time.  Artists often paint the view over the farm from Thoreson Road. 

Three times since 1992 The Homestead Resort has attempted to obtain this Park land for development, but each time was thwarted through steadfast efforts of a protective public.  In 2001 The Glen Arbor Art Association entered into agreement with the National Park Service to restore, preserve, and utilize the historic farmstead.  The ability of the public to benefit from the legacy of Port Oneida’s farmers is now assured.