A few grainy photographs. Records gathered from old, dusty cabinets. Fragile artifacts. The lens through which history is viewed seems to get more opaque the farther back in time one is forced to look.

It's one reason the team at the Leelanau Historical Society is particularly excited about “Sugar Loaf: A Retrospective,” open now through the end of 2025. The exhibit focuses on the comparatively fresh history of the cherished ski hill that was at one point the largest employer in the county and still remains a topic of conversation nearly a quarter century after it closed.

The society and a committee that helped it with the project spent more than four years speaking with dozens of people who have firsthand knowledge of the community hill and later resort, which operated from 1947-2000. In addition to an information-rich exhibit on display at the society’s museum in Leland, they’ll now have a comprehensive account of one of the county’s most impactful businesses – a veritable time capsule of all things Sugar Loaf for when its history is no longer so recent. 

“When it’s all said and done, it’s all going to be part of a digital collection with correct dates, names, stories and actual recordings of all of these memories, and that’s something that’s kind of hard to do in the history field,” Elizabeth Adams, the society’s engagement and collections manager, tells The Ticker.

But the “double-edged sword” of capturing recent history is that heightened emotions attached to the resort – particularly its closing and numerous failed redevelopment attempts – make the topic a sore one for many in the community, and leave certain key parts of the Sugar Loaf story up for considerable debate.

“The nostalgia is amazing, and there were people who wanted to talk about it, but there were people who were too emotional and weren’t ready to talk about it, because it was so hard to see that beloved place close,” society Executive Director Kim Kelderhouse tells The Ticker. “It’s both sides of the coin there.”

Ultimately, the exhibit doesn’t attempt to explain why the resort closed, though it touches on factors that likely contributed.

“(When you ask) ‘Why do you think the resort failed?’ That’s where you get a lot more complicated answers that run a huge spectrum,” Kelderhouse says. “We had to balance that in this exhibit – staying grounded in the facts and not the speculation. Something that everyone wants to know when they come to the exhibit is what actually happened. We tried to present the facts, and people can draw their own conclusions.”

Although there are still tough emotions surrounding Sugar Loaf, it’s probably safe to say that the majority of people who think back to the time spent there are awash in good memories, and the exhibit is “hooking on to that nostalgia,” Kelderhouse says.

“We have noticed a really big uptick in our visitation since we launched the exhibit, so it definitely resonates with people,” Kelderhouse says. “People want to relive happy memories.”

It’s a living exhibit in more ways than one. Not only are the memories very much alive, but the exhibit itself is growing as people continue to bring in various trinkets and artifacts – something organizers planned on happening and left space for.

“We keep changing things and adding as people bring us all of these wonderful treasures,” Adams says.

Adams and Kelderhouse are very grateful to everyone who took part in researching and assembling the exhibit.

“We couldn’t have done it without them," Kelderhouse says.

Click here for more information on the historical society and its exhibits.