This Michigan village on M-22 is so small, the lake is always 10 steps away

Leland’s two-lake life on M-22

You drive 30 minutes north of Traverse City on M-22, and the road delivers you to a village squeezed between two bodies of water.

Leland sits on a narrow strip of the Leelanau Peninsula, with Lake Michigan on one side and Lake Leelanau on the other. The Carp River cuts right through the middle of town, connecting the two.

Everything you need, the shops, the galleries, the waterfront, is close enough to walk. But the fishing shanties along the river are what pull you in, and they go back further than you’d think.

Fishtown’s roots trace back to the 1850s

The land where Leland sits was one of the oldest and largest Ottawa villages on the peninsula, long before European settlers arrived.

In 1853, the Antoine Manseau family came over from North Manitou Island and built a dam across the river, raising the water level to power a sawmill and docks.

By the late 1800s, commercial fishing had taken hold along the riverfront, with shanties and smokehouses lining both banks.

People didn’t start calling it “Fishtown” until the 1940s, but the fishing village itself had already been running for nearly a century by then.

Weathered shanties and fish tugs still line the river

Fishtown earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and the state named it a Michigan Historic Site two years earlier.

In January 2022, the Fishtown Historic District got its own separate listing on the National Register.

Walk along the Leland River today and you’ll see the same weathered shanties, smokehouses, overhanging docks, and fish tugs that have been here for generations.

The Fishtown Preservation Society, a nonprofit, keeps the whole operation open and maintained so you can still step inside a working commercial fishing village on the Great Lakes.

Smoked whitefish straight from a fifth-generation shanty

Carlson’s Fishery has run out of Fishtown since 1904.

Nels Carlson, a Norwegian immigrant, started it, and five generations later, his family still runs the place.

You can walk up to the shanty and buy fresh-caught whitefish, smoked lake trout, fish pate, smoked fish sausage, and beef jerky right over the counter.

Out back, the fish smoke over maplewood in the same style of smokers the family has used for more than a century. The smell reaches you before you even see the building.

Hunt for blue stones on Van’s sugar-sand beach

Van’s Beach sits at the end of Cedar Street, just steps from downtown. A short trail from Van’s Garage leads you down to a stretch of sugar sand on Lake Michigan.

The beach faces west, so sunsets land right in front of you. Swimmers, sunbathers, and stone hunters all share the same sand here.

Petoskey stones turn up along the shore, but the real prize is Leland Blue, a smooth, colorful stone you won’t find on many other beaches in the world.

An old iron smelter left gems in the lake

Leland Blues aren’t natural stone. They’re slag glass, left over from the Leland Lake Superior Iron Company, which ran an iron smelter north of the river from 1870 to 1884.

Workers heated Upper Peninsula iron ore with local maple and beech charcoal, then dumped the leftover slag into Lake Michigan.

Over the decades, waves broke that slag into smooth, rounded stones in shades of deep cobalt, pale sky blue, purple, gray, and green.

Only about 2 percent of the slag carries that prized blue color, so finding a true Leland Blue takes patience and a good eye.

A 200-foot viewing platform above Lake Michigan

Clay Cliffs Natural Area covers 104.5 acres, about 2.5 miles north of downtown Leland. The preserve protects 1,700 feet of shoreline on both Lake Michigan and North Lake Leelanau.

A 1.5-mile loop trail winds through hardwood forest and ends at a viewing platform 200 feet above the lake.

In May, trillium and spring beauties cover the forest floor, making it one of the best wildflower walks in Leelanau County. Look up and you might catch a bald eagle soaring along the bluffs.

Whaleback’s 300-foot bluff is shaped like its name

Just south of Leland along M-22, Whaleback Natural Area sits within easy walking distance of the village.

The 40-acre preserve earned its name from the bluff itself, which rises 300 feet above Lake Michigan and looks like a beached whale from the water.

A 1.6-mile trail climbs through hardwoods to a platform at the top, where you can see the Manitou Passage and the Manitou Islands on clear days.

Keep an eye out for thimbleberries along the trail, a tiny raspberry-like fruit that rarely grows this far south in the Lower Peninsula.

Catch a ferry to the Manitou Islands from the docks

Manitou Island Transit has run a ferry out of Fishtown for more than a century.

The Mishe-Mokwa departs from the docks right in the heart of the village and crosses open Lake Michigan water, about 90 minutes each way.

The Manitou Islands belong to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and once you’re out there, you’ll find hiking trails, campsites, a historic lighthouse, old-growth cedar trees, and a shipwreck visible from shore.

The National Park Service is upgrading docks and infrastructure on the islands, so check current schedules on the official website before you plan your crossing.

M-22 is the drive people keep stealing signs for

M-22 runs 116 miles around the Leelanau Peninsula, following the Lake Michigan shoreline through Leland, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Glen Arbor, Northport, Suttons Bay, and Traverse City.

USA Today readers voted it the best scenic autumn drive in the country, and Rand McNally named it one of the top five greatest driving tours in America. The state designated the route a Pure Michigan Byway.

The M-22 road sign has become so well-known that the Michigan Department of Transportation has dealt with ongoing sign theft along the route for years.

Sleeping Bear Dunes is just minutes down the road

Good Morning America named Sleeping Bear Dunes the “Most Beautiful Place in America” in 2011.

The national lakeshore stretches along 35 miles of Lake Michigan coastline south of Leland, with towering sand dunes, forests, beaches, and inland lakes packed into the park.

North and South Manitou Islands, the ones you can reach by ferry from Fishtown, are part of the same park.

Good Harbor Beach, a short drive south of Leland, sits inside the national lakeshore too, with clear water and views of the Manitou Islands from the sand.

The Carp River waterfall runs right through town

Downtown Leland fits in a few blocks. You can cover the whole thing on foot and never need your car.

Many of the old fishing shanties now house local shops, art galleries, and small businesses, so the waterfront doubles as a shopping district.

The Carp River waterfall tumbles through the center of Fishtown, and you hear it everywhere you walk. Leland stays quieter than Traverse City down the road, especially in the summer and fall color season.

The pace here is slower, and nobody seems to mind.

Explore Leland’s waterfront village in Michigan

You’ll find Leland on the Leelanau Peninsula in northern Michigan, about 30 minutes north of Traverse City on M-22. The village sits between Lake Michigan and Lake Leelanau, so water is never far from sight.

Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City is the closest commercial airport, about 35 miles southeast.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, one of the most visited national parks in the Midwest, is just minutes south along the same highway. Fill up your tank in Traverse City before you head north.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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