Growing up in Glen Arbor with my five siblings, cousins, and friends, we naturally spent a lot of time swimming, canoeing, snorkeling, and just walking up and down the Crystal River with a fishing pole in our hands.
Sometimes when we’d fish the Crystal, my dad would say, “Paul, we need to be quiet so we can hear the fish swim.” It really was that quiet. We could see beavers and, occasionally, otters. Always an abundance of ducks and birds.
During the COVID time, I returned to Glen Arbor, and we bought a place on the river near Glen Arbor, built years ago by someone I went to school with. My youngest kids were enrolled in Glen Lake Elementary School, the school my Dad was the principal of when I was young. Many mornings, my children and I peer out to see if we can spot a beaver or an otter. But in the last few summers, sadly, we have not seen a beaver or an otter, and now even the sighting of a duck is rare.
