This continues a series adapted from the book, “A Port Oneida Collection,” Volume 1 of the twopart set, “Oral History, Photographs, and Maps from the Sleeping Bear Region,” produced by Tom Van Zoeren in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear. Here we begin a look at the old Fred & Ellen Miller Farm, just north of the Thoreson Farm on Thoreson Road.
Now gone except for the (now privately-owned) houses and a few remnant apple trees, lilacs, and brushy fields, the farm just west of the north end of Thoreson Road was the scene of much activity until recent decades. In addition to normal farm operations, Ellen Miller ran the Manitou View Inn there, while her husband Fred “made most of the launches around Glen Lake,” as well as fish tugs for the big lake, according to neighbor Jack Barratt. “He was an artist,” added Jack’s wife Lucille. Mr. Miller, who grew up on the nearby Frederick & Margretha Werner Farm, also built small fishing boats known as “pound boats” (though Jack remembered them usually being called “pond boats” around here); but “people generally knocked them together themselves.” Mr. Miller is reported to have been a perfectionist who took pride in making boats that were well balanced and which floated properly.
Ellen Miller was a strong, complex personality in the Port Oneida community. A daughter of “Lanie the Fishergirl” (Ch. 1), she grew up on the Ole and Magdalena Olsen Farm at the east end of Kelderhouse Road. When the time came, Ellen married neighbor Fred Miller. The couple purchased the property north of the Thoreson Farm, and Fred proceeded to build a barn, a farm, and, in 1930, the graceful Manitou View Inn.
