Like many who visit Leelanau for the first time, Maple City resident Frank Mancuso first discovered and came to love the county as a child, when he and his family would come up to visit his aunt and uncle in Empire on summer vacation.
Raised in Hollis, New Hampshire, making the annual trip to Michigan, specifically Leelanau County, was always one that Mancuso looked forward to. Sunsets on Empire Beach were the best he’s ever seen, Mancuso said, and he learned from his uncle how to fish on South Bar Lake in Empire.
“Coming here (to Leelanau) was almost like going to Disney World,” Mancuso recalled. “We were the token ‘fudgies’ cruising around with New Hampshire plates on our car in the summer. I don’t get too mad about traffic jams now because once upon a time, I was one of those people.”
