The writer of this wonderful story uses the word “historic” about 25 times and every positive note is conveyed due to its utter lack of ugly commercial development.  Harbor Springs is special because of its natural beauty and gorgeously kept historic houses and buildings. Keeping it as it is! Keeping Harbor Harbor at its’ best.

Located on Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay — at the far-flung “tip of the mitt” — Harbor Springs has been a resort destination, mostly for Midwesterners, since the 1850s. Come Memorial Day weekend, the population of this quintessential American lake community — imagine sherbet-hued cruiser bikes, moored boats bobbing in a turquoise harbor, and 19th-century storefronts bedecked in tufts of patriotic bunting — swells to about five times its year-round population of 1,270 people. Considering Harbor Springs’ tiny geography of just 1.3 square miles, the sudden surge might sound like a swarm, were most of them not recreationally dispersed over land and lake, on boats and beaches and backroads beyond the town boundaries.

“An intentional lack of sprawl maintains the quaint feel and preserves the diversity and beauty of our natural surroundings,” says Tobin MacCready, a second-generation local shop owner. Indeed, nary a fast-food chain nor big-box store mars this historic postcard idyll. Read more…