“Discovery Day” Programs

In early 2018, Discovery Day chair, Julie Avery convened meetings with Barbara Siepker, Kim Kelderhouse (Curator of the Leelanau Historical Society and Museum  and Dave Taghon (Director of the Empire Area Historical Group and Museum ) to plan exploratory educational “Discovery Day” programs. Two summer programs followed the first spring Plow Day, concentrating on gathering the history of the Leelanau County Poor Farm from local residents.

We were, first of all, informed by those we contacted that the farm was always referred to as the ”county farm” in deference to its residents. Especially rich daily farm life stories came from farm supervisors’ families and the daughter of an employee who lived in the residence. Due to these educational programs, we were able to conduct ten interviews and gather over 100 old photographs. These items are available as a public resource in an expanding permanent Poor Farm Collection established at the Leelanau Historical Museum through our partnership.