It was once a thriving community. But today, it’s history.

And thanks to August “fairs” in recent years, its history has “come alive” with exhibits, demonstrations and re-enactments.

The sixth annual Port Oneida Fair, held last week near Glen Arbor, gave visitors some insight into what an early farming community was like over a century ago, when the settlement could boast of a Lake Michigan pier, post office, sawmill, store, school and Lutheran church.

The first to settle there was Carson Burfiend, a fisherman who established a farm in 1853. But Thomas Kelderhouse put the community “on the map” when he built a dock in 1862, where lake steamers, which then burned cordwood, could stop for refueling.

The first vessel to call there, the Oneida, recently built at Buffalo, N.Y., provided the settlement with a name that has held up even better than the tiny community that grew up around the dock.

There were two other communities on Sleeping Bear Bay to the west – Glen Arbor and Glen Haven. Three settlements on the same bay were apparently too much to all thrive for too long, particularly after the forests were leveled.

Today, Glen Arbor is a thriving resort community, while Glen Haven’s and Port Oneida’s heydays have come and gone.

The history has been preserved for the latter two communities by the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and a great deal of effort and dedication on the part of county residents who have helped preserve numerous buildings that might otherwise now no longer exist.

Historic buildings and farms, which were visited during last week’s fair, include the John Burfiend Barn and Port Oneida Schoolhouse, as well as the Charles Olsen, Thoreson, Dechow and Kelderhouse farms.

The preserved Kelderhouse farmhouse, which is nearly a century old, once housed a grocery store and telephone exchange.

Thomas Kelderhouse, who built the dock in 1862, was also a vessel owner. Government records show he owned the 136-foot bark Excelsior, in 1866-67.

Like the Oneida, the wooden sailing ship was built at Buffalo. It was constructed in 1865 and Robert Kelderhouse, doubtless related, was the original owner.

Following the Kelderhouse ownership, the vessel changed hands several times and was lost Oct. 15, 1871 off Thunder Bay Island in Lake Huron. There was only one survivor.

On June 3, 1886, William Kelderhouse became the first postmaster at Port Oneida. This post office closed a bit less than 20 years later, on April 15, 1905.

Port Oneida was one of the last places in the county to receive electrification, which didn’t take place until the mid-1940s.

Only a handful of farms, a cemetery and the old schoolhouse remain at Port Oneida, but, thanks to the efforts of volunteers, their future seems to be assured.

The once-thriving hamlet won’t soon be forgotten.