WILLIAMSBURG -- There were but a few hints that decades have passed since the Samels brothers earned their living as subsistence farmers on the family's 84-acre homestead as visitors surveyed the Williamsburg farm during the fifth annual Harvest Gathering on Sunday.
Freshly squeezed cider and hand-cranked ice cream provided a taste of northern Michigan farm life from days gone by for those attending the event hosted by the Samels Family Heritage Society.
"This is great for the kids to be able to see just how things were done," said Kathy Perria of Williamsburg, noting that visiting the Samels farm reminded her of trips to Greenfield Village's history-filled complex in Dearborn.
"Everyone here is so knowledgeable," said Perria of the volunteers who manned the blacksmithing demonstrations, home tours and wagon rides.
Little has changed on the homestead purchased in 1889 by Frank Samels and farmed until the 1990s by his sons: Dennis, who died in 1978, Ben who died in 1998 and Rob, who died in 2003. The bachelor brothers, who did not have a tractor until 1958 or a telephone until 1973, cooked on the wood stove where Ann Hoopfer demonstrated baking jam pinwheels Sunday.
"I am so happy that the brothers had the foresight to save the farm so that people could be educated about subsistence farming," said Hoopfer, who grew up near the farm and has been a member of the board dedicated to preserving it for four years.
Situated on Skegemog Point, the Samels farm was placed in a trust by brothers Ben and Rob in the 1990s. The beneficiary upon their death was the Archeological Conservancy, a nonprofit organization based in New Mexico. The Samels Family Heritage Society leases the land, rich with archeological finds, for a nominal fee to carry out the educational mission of the Samels brothers.
"The boys were collectors. They had hundreds of arrow points that had been found over the years," said Ted Ewald, who spent the afternoon demonstrating blacksmithing skills.
"This property has archeological sites that date back 10,000 years," said Ewald, noting that a display of the brothers' collection is being catalogued for showing at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center in Traverse City.
Omer Foret, of Elk Rapids, found that the farm's not quite so distant past brought back fond memories of his childhood spent on an uncle's farm near Bay City.
"It was a lot of hard work to live on a farm back then, but I enjoyed it," said Foret, who helped his uncle and cousins raise their tomato and potato crops during summers in the early 1930s.
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