Those involved in The Red Arrow Tavern — and the longtime LC’s Tavern before it — credit the local clientele not just with being faithful patrons of the bar at W3070 M-69 in Breen Township. Had any number of local residents not stepped up to assist the owners over the years, they say, it’s unlikely the tavern would have continued to survive since the late 1930s.

But last September, it looked like the bar’s long history might be in jeopardy, when LC’s Tavern shut down after being put up for sale earlier that summer.

Then Becky and Roger Nord stepped forward, reopening in early July as The Red Arrow Tavern, taking on the original name of the property roughly 5 miles east of Felch.

Judging from the response, they figure it was missed, Becky Nord said.

(Betsy Bloom/Daily News photos) The Red Arrow Tavern, formerly LC’s Tavern on M-69 in Foster City, closed last September. The site reopened for business in July.

“This was a place where they could get together with locals, celebrate and just enjoy themselves,” she said.

The original Red Arrow Bar is thought to have been established sometime after the property was purchased in 1938, Becky Nord said. She thinks the current building, with its log walls, dates back to the 1940s after the first structure burned down.

The Bonetti family acquired the property from August Schultz in 1944, operating it as Bonetti’s Bar until Daryl Elsey bought the business in 1989, renaming it LC’s Tavern.

Long before he became owner, Elsey and his family had been seasonal patrons of the bar, said his daughter, Sheila Lawrenson, now of Waterville, Washington. Her dad, a single father who did carpet installation in the Detroit area, each summer would take his four daughters to spend two weeks in the Upper Peninsula and Felch Township. Bonetti’s Bar was always on the itinerary, she said.

So when Elsey semi-retired as an independent contractor in 1989, the bar was a natural choice for a new line of work. He kept LC’s Tavern going as a gathering place for decades, where people could come shoot pool, have a pizza, watch games or just sit and talk with others.

He made some renovations, cleaned up the business, “did as much as he could to make it a community environment,” Lawrenson said.

The people of the area — Felch, Foster City, Hardwood and others — grew to be more than regular patrons, “they became family,” she said.

That “family” would in turn check in on Elsey while he was living by himself in the house on the same property. They’d invite him to camp or to join in other activities, Lawrenson said.

On Sept. 7, 2018, a Friday, Elsey fell, injuring his right hand, left elbow and shoulder, plus giving himself a bloody nose. Friends urged him to get checked out by a doctor, but he refused, also insisting they not tell anyone in his family. Even when Lawrenson did a Skype session that same day and asked about his face, he brushed it off as nothing.

The following Monday morning, police were called to his home when he didn’t answer the door or calls, his family stated in a Facebook post. Found unresponsive, Elsey was flown to Bellin Memorial Hospital in Green Bay, where he died Sept. 13, 2018, after suffering a slow brain bleed from the fall, Lawrenson said.

While the property passed on to all four daughters, it was Beth Tiberio — who had already planned to visit her dad from downstate Michigan, arriving the same Monday he was taken to Green Bay — who picked up the reins of the business, along with Lawrenson from afar in Washington state.

But for Tiberio’s hard work “getting things on track,” the tavern would most likely have not continued, Lawrenson said. What was to be only a few months at the business stretched into four years, during which Tiberio re-established some “very deep roots” in the region, Lawrenson said.

But it was never supposed to be permanent. Tiberio had family, including three sons, still in lower Michigan. “It was too hard,” Lawrenson said.

So the sisters decided to put the business up for sale in the summer of 2022. Last call at LC’s Tavern came Sept. 25, 2022.

Lawrenson admitted, “Our fear was if the bar was closed for too long it would not reopen.”

Enter the Nords. The two Hardwood residents had long been acquainted with the property. Becky Nord even worked at LC’s in the past, so was more than familiar with the operation.

“We knew that it was such a vital part of the community,” she said. “We wanted to see it open again.”

“If we could have picked the person to buy it,” Lawrenson said, “it would have been them.”

The Nords did some renovation work inside — a new ceiling, restaining the log walls, installing pub tables and chairs for more seating. “Freshened the place up,” Becky Nord said. But they tried to retain the general look and atmosphere of the past tavern.

“The logs show this bar has a lot of character,” Becky Nord said.

Their three grown children — Martha, Veronica and Ramsey, all still in the area — had a hand in getting The Red Arrow Tavern ready to reopen as well, Becky Nord said. Her mother, Sheila Stier, helps out, too.

“It’s a family business, where everyone in the family has done a lot,” Becky Nord said.

Their menu for now mostly is limited to pizzas and what can be done in the fryer, such as chicken wings or chicken strips, she said. But they are steadily adding different hot sandwiches and other items. Tuesday they served chicken quesadillas to mark the end of summer. They expect a full crowd Thursday night, as they can show the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game at Lambeau Field.

They also have regular drink specials and for the Labor Day baseball tournament in Felch earlier this month created signature drinks for each of the teams competing.

Live music has resumed. They will bring back the pool league this winter and already are preparing for the hunting season crowds to come.

Unlike LC’s Tavern, The Red Arrow for now is open seven days a week, from noon to closing. Becky Nord said they wanted to “create consistency” and give the public every opportunity to come back, especially this time of year when people are starting to get hunting camps set up.

This winter, they intend to move a storage cooler and open up an adjacent room for even more pub tables, along with a handicapped-accessible entrance.

Monday, the daughter of Bonetti’s Bar owners Louis and Milly Bonetti had lunch at The Red Arrow with her cousins. Shirley DeRidder, now of Escanaba, said she grew up in the bar, learning how to play pool and cards from the loggers. She raved about the mix of new and familiar at the tavern.

“We just loved it,” DeRidder said. “It was very, very good. I’m so happy they’re doing so well.”

Lawrenson said she will definitely stop in when she returns for the deer hunt this fall. The family still owns the house on the property — oddly, it’s in Felch Township — along with the land across M-69 that has the snowmobile trail.

“The Upper Peninsula and Felch,” she said, “will always be a part of us.”

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.