Events

There was a fascination with the idea of German escaped prisoners and spies that might be hiding out on Omena Point during both of the World Wars. Mary Louis Vail remembered a play the cottagers of Ingalls Bay put on back then using a blanket strung between two trees behind the Saxon house for the curtain. Elizabeth and Betty Saxon played the leading roles in the spy thriller which took place, of course, on Omena Point. However all that Mary Louis remembered about this play is one line: the heroine is strolling down a path through the woods when she… Read More »

The body of Miss Deborah DeCostello, aeronaut, who drowned in Lake Michigan October 1st, was found Saturday by Joe Black on November 6th”, reported the Empire Journal in 1920. Female daredevil Deborah DeCostello, 27, had come to Empire to entertain as part of the county fair. She was to jump from the bi-plane wearing her parachute (which were unheard of then) on the 29th and 30th of September but was unable to because the weather was very bad as it sometimes is in September. Even though she was offered $400 NOT to jump after the fair had ended, she insisted… Read More »