Drive Highland Road past Fisk Road on almost any weekend and the farm looks the same as it has for decades: white farmhouse, a scatter of outbuildings, a hand-lettered sign for whatever the Historical Society has planned next. It sits on the same stretch of M-59 that carries most of White Lake Township's retail traffic, wedged between the kind of strip development that defines a lot of this corridor. The farm has not changed. That is the point.
This September, that unchanging corner is quietly doing something bigger than usual. The Fisk Farm Festival turns 40. And a few miles away, on Elizabeth Lake Road, a park that has been closed for years is finally getting close to reopening. Put those two things next to each other and you get a fair read on how shared space actually moves in this township: slowly, and almost never because a developer decided it should.
Forty Years On the Same Ground
The White Lake Historical Society has run its craft festival at the historic Kelley-Fisk Farm, 9180 Highland Road, for 39 years running as of 2025, which makes this year's event, scheduled for September 12 and 13, 2026, the 40th. The Society's own numbers put average attendance at roughly 1,200 people over the two-day weekend, a figure that has held steady enough for the organization to keep citing it year after year.
In past years the weekend has included a juried craft show, live music, pony rides, a pet adoption drive, and a table of homemade pies that regulars plan around. The Society has not finalized this year's full entertainment lineup, but the shape of the event rarely changes much: local crafters, farm buildings open for walking through, kids' activities scattered across the grounds, and a $1 or so admission that has kept it accessible for decades.
What holds the whole thing together is not marketing. It is a volunteer board that meets monthly, including a general membership meeting this Thursday, August 13, a month out from the festival itself. That meeting will not make headlines. But it is the actual mechanism behind a 40-year event: people showing up to plan it, in a room, well before anyone else is paying attention.
That is worth sitting with for a second. The single biggest recurring gathering in White Lake Township is not run by the township, a business improvement group, or a developer. It is run by a historical society whose members meet in a farmhouse and have kept a festival alive since the mid-1980s. If you want to understand how this community actually organizes itself around shared land, this is closer to the real answer than any parks master plan.
A Boat Ramp Becomes a Fishing Pier
The other big shift this fall sits on the opposite end of the change spectrum: something that has taken years to happen at all.
Stanley Park, at 10785 Elizabeth Lake Road, is a 57-acre property the township bought from the Pollack family, later named for the late Stanley Pollack. According to a neighborhood association that has tracked the project closely, a Michigan DNR grant covered 74 percent of the $1.3 million purchase price, and a three-phase development plan was finalized back in 2021. Phase 1 called for a paved road and walking trail down to the lake from Elizabeth Lake Road, removal of the old boat ramp, and installation of a new observation and fishing pier.
For most of that time, the park has simply been closed. The township's own site currently lists it as temporarily closed for construction, with a beach and nature trails on the property that residents have not been able to use while the work finishes. The township's message to anyone checking on it has been direct:
"Please check back in the fall for information regarding the park's re-opening."
That is a small sentence, but it lines up with what the neighborhood association has separately reported: Phase 1 construction wrapping up, with a ribbon cutting being planned for sometime in 2026. Put the two sources together and the picture is consistent. A park that has been off-limits since before most of the current construction started is on track to open, or at least announce an opening date, this fall.
For a property this size, that is not a small event. The township's own description of Stanley Park frames it as more than a boat launch upgrade: the long-term vision includes trail activity, a pavilion, picnic areas, and beach access, according to the township's community page. What is arriving this fall is just the first piece of that, but it is the piece that decides whether anyone can get down to the water at all.
Same Season, Two Different Speeds
Here is what's actually interesting about White Lake having both of these moments land in the same season. One is proof that some things here do not change, on purpose, because volunteers keep them running exactly as they were. The other is proof that when something does change, on public land, it takes years and a state grant to get there.
Neither of those is a complaint. They are just the two speeds this township runs at when it comes to shared space. A 40-year festival tells you something about how deep the local volunteer bench actually is. A park that took a DNR grant, a three-phase plan, and years of construction to reopen a boat ramp tells you that public land improvements here move on government timelines, not developer ones.
If you live here, both of those are worth knowing going into September. The Fisk Farm Festival is going to run exactly the way it always has, because that is the whole design. Stanley Park is finally catching up to a plan that has been on paper since 2021, and this is likely the season you will hear whether the wait is actually over.
Either way, it is a good fall to pay attention to the corner of Highland and Fisk, and to the gate on Elizabeth Lake Road that has been shut for longer than anyone would like.
If you are already part of this community and want a straight read on what is happening around White Lake, from the events that anchor a season to the property questions that come up when you least expect them, Anne Shields is always glad to talk. Schedule a free consultation whenever you are ready.
