Volunteer to help restore the Katie Shepard Hotel on North Manitou Island!

Volunteers for Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear will make their fourth trek to North Manitou Island this Friday, August 17th to spend 10 days working on the Katie Shepard Hotel on “Cottage Row”. The goal is to restore the hotel for use once again as a boarding house for overnight- rustic accommodations.

Volunteers must sign up for a minimum of two nights, three days work. Space is limited and registration is required. Click here for all the details!

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore page on North Manitou Island Village explains that the Katie Shepard Hotel aka “The Beeches” was built in 1895 for Mrs. William Shepard for their daughter Katherine, who was popularly known on the island as “Miss Katie.” She opened the house as a hotel known as The Beeches around the time the Newhalls began logging around 1908 when they discontinued meal service at the dining hall at the northern end of Cottage Row.

Miss Katie operated the hotel and dining room until poor health forced her to discontinue the business in the early 1930s.