OVPA Blog

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 »

Originally the Hannah, Lay & Company Boarding House, this building was on the SW corner of N. Union and Bay Street. At that time, Dr. Goodale was running it and his 15-year-old daughter, Helen Goodale, was Traverse City’s first schoolteacher (if you do not count the schooner school). This is where Helen lived during that time. – Courtesy Traverse Area District Library. I had thought 15-year-old Helen Goodale, (the daughter of Dr Goodale who delivered the mail from his big pockets) was the schoolmarm in the first non-Indian school the area, but I was wrong. Her little log school, with… 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 »

  Once there were many little buildings out behind the cottages in Omena that the children used as secret hideaways. Some of them were used as tool sheds. Some just stood there in case they were needed again. These were once the outhouses of Omena Point. Until the late 1920s all of the cottages had outhouses. Then gas powered pumps became available that could pump lake water to tanks in attics or raised tanks next to houses where gravity would take the cold water to faucets inside. Finally in 1932 electricity had reached Omena Point so water was readily available… 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 »

Eliza working on a mat. photo credit: U of M Bentley Library, Ruth Craker collection and Weengush Odeimin Blind Eliza Sah-Gah lived in a little house in Ahgosatown where she was born in 1910. Little is known about her besides her excellent mat weaving skills. She was part of a group of highly skilled basket weavers in Ahgosatown who, with what must have been much patience, taught her mat weaving. There are many examples of baskets made by Ahgosatown women at the Eyaawing museum, but none by Eliza. Perhaps they all were used by locals and wore out. Mats were… Read More »

Druggist Edward Miller and Ahnequet Quah with unknown Indian people, probably taken at his store on Front Street. Photo credit: History Center of Traverse City Edward Eugene Miller was the son of a fur trader from Canada who moved around eventually landing in Old Mission where he was a fur trader and government interpreter of the Odawa language In 1852 Rev. Dougherty and many of his Native American followers moved across the bay from Old Mission and established their New Mission in what would become Omena. The New Mission church was dedicated in 1858. Edward as a little boy attended… 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 »

After the wicked storm this past weekend, seemed like a good time to share the post and pictures from a February 2021 Facebook post. There’s lots of snow in Omena! Here are some photos of it, starting with what it was like long ago to deal with it in Northern Michigan, and followed by photos of the peace and beauty of Omena snow today. Thanks to Shannon Tighe and the Grand Traverse County Road Commission, as well as Northern Michigan Photo Postcards for the photos.