Fishtown Preservation
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Fishtown’s Shanties

Fishtown facing east, showing the Leland Power House, ca. 1930s.  Erhardt Peters Collection, LHS.

Fishtown is a unique historical attraction composed of weather-beaten fishing shanties and small shops lining the mouth of the Leland River. The site has endured and adapted over the last 150 years as an ever-evolving working waterfront that still operates as one of the only unmodernized commercial fishing villages in the state of Michigan.

meggen watt shanties

Click to see the shanty photo gallery

One of the most important characteristics of Fishtown is its core of historic shanties. Though only a few are still used for commercial fishing operations, most of the structures in Fishtown had their origins as commercial fishing buildings. These buildings served many purposes, including net-mending sheds, ice houses, smoke houses, and storage. Though processes like ice-making are now mechanized in a commercial fishery, running a fishery still requires extensive space for equipment storage and net repairs.

Many buildings have come and gone from the Fishtown landscape with the changing fortunes of the industry, yet Fishtown survives as a rare working waterfront and an authentic and active commercial fishing village.

 

Leelanau Goods

Leelanau clothing offers nostalgic, feminine designs, impeccably sewn with custom prints and natural textiles. Responsibly designed and manufactured in the USA.

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Wislow Research

Since Wislow Research’s founding in 2018, project work has focused primarily on North Pacific fishery management action-related analyses.

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Village Cheese Shanty

The never-trendy, tourist-friendly, palate teasing, village cheese shop located in the heart of Fishtown.

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HopkinsBurns Design Studio

Since 1984, the firm’s Historic Preservation Practice has participated in hundreds of preservation projects involving

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