Ellsworth Faulman operated The Glen Lake Trading Post on the east shore of Glen Lake. The store was a favorite stopping place for summer residents to get groceries, gifts or a soda -chocolate was the favorite of his loyal customers.
The store was built in the winter of 1948/49. Ellsworth and his wife, Louise, retired the business in 1978. 
Glen Lake Trading Post Gift Shop Circa 1966
The Glen Lake Trading Post featured electrical refrigeration and one of the first closed freezers in the area along with the only real soda bar within miles.
Here is an excerpt taken from an oral interview with Ellsworth & wife, Louise, conducted by Barbara Seipker in 2003:
“When we were up here in August of 1947, we were staying in the little cottage where Birds is now. I came down to the little store, by Holdens (Funistrada now) where the parking lot is now. Right next door was this little grocery store, Poulins….. I came for milk and a few little things and got chatting with the owner, Poulin (a French name). They owned some cottages where Villa Glen is now. I was telling him how much we liked it and wanted to live here. He said, why don’t you buy this store? During the winter, we negotiated. We came in July of 1948. Our two oldest boys were in school. Lucille went back Labor Day so they could go to school. I stayed and then Lucille made the move all by herself. I wondered how she did it. She came back the later part of September and our boys went to school in Empire. We ran the store that winter. There were times I came in and there was snow on the shelves as the windows didn’t close. It was very, very crude. We lived in the little cottage. The pipes would freeze. There used to be a lot more snow back then. There weren’t many people in the store. We built the new store it the winter of 1948-9. We didn’t by the old building just stock and fixtures, … shelves, no refrigeration. In April, this was finished and we moved over here.”
To read more of the interview, click Faulman1
If you want to send Ellsworth a birthday card, they may be sent to Ellsworth Faulman, Munson Hospice House, Room #4, 450 Brook Street, Traverse City. He will turn 100 years old on Monday, April 4.
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