Omena History

This photo is labeled “Stan BAM”. “Omena Dock”. Photo credit Omena Historical Society. – Stan (Stanley) Moore and Blanche Anderson Moore (BAM or Bamboo) are likely candidates. The old dock was closed in 2021. In need of repairs and deemed not safe, it stood a testament to what once was. This old dock has a long history. Reverend Peter Dougherty noted in the fall of 1851 that the site of the present OTYC dock would be a “good landing”. He sketched a possible path from that landing to his mission site as “good for road”. In the 1890’s the Hotel… Read More »

Stone Entrance to cave and home of Mary and Big Joe of Ahgosatown. Photo courtesy of Annette Deible and Alice Littlefield History is slippery. Take Mary Big Joe for instance. Mary was an Indian woman who lived on the north side of Ahgosatown about a mile north of Omena. She lived in a cave dug into the hillside with a stone entrance she built herself. Mary and Big Joe, came from the Indian settlement at Onumunese near today’s Gill’s Pier in the early ’30’s. They lived in Ahgosatown during its later years, according to Elizabeth Craker Armstrong, a local historian…. Read More »

  Outdoor Movies in Omena? What a great idea! But it was not just for the fun of it that the Kimmerly’s and John Putnam decided to try outdoor movies one summer in Omena. Bea and Myles Kimmerly took over Anderson’s store in 1947 and for the next eleven years they lived over the store and worked hard, carrying a little bit of everything, from potatoes to kerosene, catering to everyone from resorters, and cottagers, to migrant workers who came to town to harvest cherries and apples. It was a short season that could “make or break” the store. But… Read More »

  Up the rickety steps we went, with just enough room to squeeze by. A single dim lightbulb lit our way as we avoided the cobwebs. Once we got to the top of the stairs, light from the two end windows, one bare lightbulb, and a string of Christmas lights showed us what was ahead for us. Jim Promo and Lynn Sutton accompanied by a postal clerk, rolled up their sleeves and got to work. This was the attic of the Omena Post Office, this is what is behind that upstairs window we have been wondering about. We needed to… Read More »

This 16-foot by 40-foot partial hull made a reappearance on the Lake Michigan shoreline near the end of the Dune Climb path a few years ago. It is believed to have been from the General Taylor, a wooden steamer that was stranded near Sleeping Bear Point in 1862. It is not known if this was the shipwreck Rev. Dougherty walked to seeking flour, but it could have been. There were many shipwrecks in this area during this time. – Courtesy Historic ipse, Record-Eagle article. When Rev. Dougherty heard there had been a shipwreck on the shore of Lake Michigan somewhere… Read More »

Omena Fire House before renovations When women get left behind, things happen. Omena’s fire station was built on land donated by the Society of Jesus in 1963 to the Leelanau Township specifically for a fire station. It was big enough for one fire truck and had barely functioning bathrooms. About that time, the men of the village were meeting at the Harbor Bar across the street to play poker, and the wives began to feel left out. They decided to meet at the Fire Station pulling up chairs next to the fire trucks for coffee and euchre while their men… Read More »

It is May Day! In the past Maypole Dances took place in downtown Omena! That’s right, young and old, Native Americans, summer people and locals. They all gathered for refreshments and to weave in and out around a pole in the center of town creating a symbol of the change of seasons. Swedish scholar Carl Wilhelm von Sydow stated that Maypoles were erected simply as “a sign that the happy season of warmth and comfort had returned,” of the return of summer. It’s a custom that’s been going on for over 2,000 years. How does a Maypole get created? The… Read More »

Only a few photos remain of the sawmill which some of which are here thanks to Omena Historical Society. The definition of old-growth or primeval forest is one that “has attained great age without significant disturbance”. Do we have any old-growth forests in Omena? Actually yes, we do, according to Chris Verdery, our local forestry expert. There is a 300 year old White Ash tree, the oldest in Michigan, in Omena Woods that families have had their photos taken with for generations,  the children growing along with the tree. And there are several 300 year old Sugar Maples along the… Read More »

In 1890 Grierson retired with the rank of Brigadier General of the US Army and in 1896 moved into his cottage on Omena Bay. I imagine after all those years in the dry dusty west, he spent a lot of time on that long dock and high tower looking at the bay. – photo credit Weengush Odeimin General Grierson’s cottage, named “the Garrison” in his time was a magnificent, towered building on the end of Omena Point. (Now called the Rule cottage) Benjamin Greirson was an unlikely hero of the civil war. He was a gangling Scotch-Irishman with dark hair,… Read More »

This is a customer reply card from Solle’s Bookstore from 1941. Solle named the local train “Maude” and credited her for delivering his books. Courtesy Leelanau Historical Society Rarely does death strike the same family twice within one week. But shortly after Carrie Solle was called to Chicago in March of 1949 to be with her sister whose husband had died, she got another call that her own husband had died as well. William H. Solle, “World Famous Omena Bookseller”, was home alone on that Sunday afternoon when he became ill. He called Dr Johnson of Northport, who found him… Read More »