Beginning in the 1920s, two sisters from Madison and their adventure-minded husbands boldly create a utopian boy's camp on an idyllic site in the Leelanau wilderness.  Out of the camp grows an unorthodox boarding school, which, in turn, leads to the founding of a popular summer resort.  The three ventures --originally conceived as the "legs of a three-legged stool" -- still exist independently today. Organized along a year-by-year timeline, "Straight as the Pine, Sturdy as the Oak" follows the arc of change in the peaceful Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore region from its late 19th- and early 20th-century fishing/farming beginnings toward the development of the vacation industry that marks it today.  In the initial years, campers and students are taught self-reliance and encouraged to figure things out on their own: in between Latin and history lessons they build boats, study aeronautics, and help grow vegetables and raise animals to feed themselves.  At the same time, they are led to see that they can camp in the woods all summer and still be real gentlemen.  The 1920s boys camp snapshots call to mind the world of Thomas Eakins, while its later professional photographs prefigure the work of contemporary artists such as Bruce Weber.  

Michael Huey is a Vienna-based American contemporary artist and art historian, author, and contributor to many books.  A grandson of Major and Helen Huey and great-nephew of Skipper and Cora Beals, he grew up in Glen Arbor and Leland.