Fishtown is a collection of weathered fishing shanties, smokehouses, overhanging docks, fish tugs and charter boats along the Leland River in Leland, Michigan. The heart of a commercial fishing village, Fishtown is where we can still see and feel a connection to the long tradition of Great Lakes maritime culture.
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Fishtown Preservation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving the historical integrity of Fishtown and ensuring that it continues as a publicly accessible and authentic connection to local and regional history, Great Lakes commercial fishing, and maritime traditions and experiences.
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Few places are as real as Fishtown. Here we can preserve a living link to a long Great Lakes maritime heritage, as well as to our own families and memories. We want to ensure that Fishtown remains alive for future generations. Your participation will make all the difference for Fishtown.
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Thanks to everyone that came out to support Fishtown Preservation—as a racer, volunteer, sponsor or cheerleader. All that are involved make this event a huge success in helping to preserve Fishtown. In celebration of our 10th Annual Fishtown 5K, we declared 2018 the “Year of the Tug.” We had two tug costume workshops before […]
Friends of Fishtown 5K on Saturday, July 22 – works with timing company Endurance Evolution of Traverse City to provide live tracking – which means instantaneous results! Pick-up race packets on Friday, July 21 from 2-4pm, including bib numbers available for runners who registered online. After the race, live tracking, and results can be found here and on the FPS Facebook […]
It was late November 2015, and Joy was heading inland for the latest round of maintenance and improvements Fishtown Preservation has undertaken over the past ten years
After asking hundreds of people about their vacations and childhood memories, I turned the question to myself: Why did I choose to work for Fishtown Preservation in northern Michigan, knowing no one, for my last college-given summer?
My name is Grace. This blog will provide a perspective of Fishtown you might not have encountered: the perspective of an outsider.
As visitors, we don’t often notice the finer details of a working community. We see painters, boaters, fishermen and shop owners, day after day, but we assume they’re here because the place is beautiful and one of a kind. We forget that they’re also working. Whether they’re selling paintings, smoking whitefish sausage or scooping ice cream, many of them have five months to earn enough money to support their families for an entire year. In the summer Fishtown swells with families and friends on vacation, but it is also full of families and friends working to preserve Fishtown for visitors, year after year.
We set ambitious goals for Fishtown in our original strategic plan because Fishtown matters even more now than it did 40 years ago, when it became the cornerstone of the Leland National Register Historic District.
We asked you to share what Fishtown looks like through your eyes, and more than 50 of you sent us nearly 200 images of your Fishtown. This video is what Fishtown looks like, through all of our eyes.
Don’t change anything. Many people—maybe most—thought that was our mission when the Fishtown Preservation Society (FPS) purchased the core historic part of Fishtown in February 2007.
