Manistee National Forest Festival

The Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce is the host and coordinator of the Manistee National Forest Festival. Events are individually run and operated by local organizations and businesses.

Schedule

8:00 AM – 9:00 PM: 75th Birthday of the Lake Bluff Farms Giant Sequoia

Lake Bluff Farms - 2890 Lakeshore Rd (just north of the State Park)

Lake Bluff Farms (2890 Lakeshore Rd, Manistee, MI 49660) is the home of the largest Giant Sequoia east of the Rockies. The biggest of three trees, a.k.a the Michigan Champion, is 116 feet tall. Since the "natural" distribution of the Giant Sequoias is a limited area in the western Sierra Nevada in California, the Lake Bluff sequoias are one of a kind. Foresters and arborists around the world are in awe of its great success in a place so far from its natural growing area. It is nearly one-half the size of the biggest known sequoias in the world. During the Manistee National Forest Festival, Lake Bluff Farms will be open for tours from 10:00 AM – 3 PM, highlighting one of Manistee’s hidden treasures of the forest.

9:00 AM – Dusk: Festival Marketplace

First Street Beach - Douglas Park

Come shop for a variety of goods with over 30 Vendors that come from all across the state. Enjoy all the unique items that they bring for you to purchase!

12:00 PM – Dusk: Anderson Midway Carnival

First Street Beach - Douglas Park

Take the family to enjoy the rides, games, food and fun only the Carnival can provide!

12:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Manistee National Forest Open House

1170 Nursery Rd, Wellston MI 49689

The headquarters sits on the historic Chittenden Nursery where guests are invited to come say hello to Smokey Bear, visit our gift shop and interact with our district staff. Want to see how your local Forest Service district is helping to save the American Elm tree? Exhibits will include a tour of an active seed bed where the Forest Service is planting copies of surviving American elm that will be included in a Dutch Elm Disease Tolerance Trial. Our firefighting unit will also have some equipment on display and talk about wildland fire management in our local area. District Botanists will be showing off the districts native plant and pollinator garden and there will be additional presentations from our Recreation, Wildlife and Timber management programs. Upon departure visitors can pick up a self-guided tour map of recent forest management projects containing the location and information about the different stages of forest management.

Cost: Free