Omena Historical Society

09/01/2026

This is our last week of the 2026 season at the PCTH Museum- We're open Friday and Saturday, September 4-5, from 11-2. Thanks to all who have visited this summer, and we hope to see you here again. The museum is open all year by appointment. [email protected]

Special for family of the late Jean Putnam- we have 2 big boxes of Jean's photo albums, which include many Lanham and McCarthy relatives. We would love to turn these family photos over to you. All of the photos have notes identifying the people! Come and look through the boxes!

Community Coffee Hour Thursday, September 3 10 am. All are welcome!
Men's OBS Coffee hour Friday, September 4, 8:30 am.

08/25/2026

Please join us for Community Coffee Hour, Thursdays 10 am.
No program, no politics- just coffee & conversation.
Men's OBS coffee Hour, Fridays at 8:30 am.
Museum is open Fridays and Saturdays 11-2 until September 5.
https://www.omenahistoricalsociety.org/

Our thanks to Mary and Dan Ziegeler, who were our gracious hosts at beautiful Sunset Lodge for our Annual Meeting. The resort's history reflects much of the history of Omena.
This is the Sunset Lodge Barn, with it's whimsical barn-door painting by Nancy Jo Wheeler c. the late 1940's.

08/19/2026

Please join us for Community Coffee Hour, Thursdays 10 am.
No program, no politics- just coffee & conversation.
Men's OBS coffee Hour, Fridays at 8:30 am.
Museum is open Fridays and Saturdays 11-2.
https://www.omenahistoricalsociety.org/

08/16/2026

From our friends at the Charlevoix Historical Society

08/12/2026

Please join us for Community Coffee Hour, Thursdays 10 am.
No program, no politics- just coffee & conversation.
Men's OBS coffee Hour, Fridays at 8:30 am.
Museum is open Fridays and Saturdays 11-2.
https://www.omenahistoricalsociety.org/

Tonight at the Leelanau Historical Society Museum! 6 pm.

The Leelanau Historical Society invites the community to an evening with Susan Wasserman, author of the 2026 Michigan Notable Book Stepping Off the Boat: Stories from North Manitou Island, on Wedne…

08/05/2026

During her college years Nancy Jo Wheeler ( daughter of Horace and Florence Fouts Wheeler) offered art lessons at ‘Nancy Jo’s Paint Box’ at her family’s home, Omena’s Sunset Lodge. After graduating from Northport High School, Nancy earned a degree in architecture and design from the University of Michigan and had a career as an art director for the J.L. Hudson Company.
This photo is in one of the new exhibits at the Putnam-Cloud Tower House Museum in Omena, open on Fridays and Saturdays 11-2. Admission is free (donations welcome). https://www.omenahistoricalsociety.org/
Please join us for Community Coffee Hour, Thursdays 10 am.
No program, no politics- just coffee & conversation.
Men's OBS coffee Hour, Fridays at 8:30 am.

07/29/2026

This 1890's photo of Omena shows the stacks of cordwood and bark near the docks, with the Anderson and Barth stores in the background. Omena was an important "wooding station" for the steamships on the Bay. The bark was needed by tanneries. "Five thousand cords of wood were got out of Northport last winter, and two thousand cords from Omena." (Grand Rapids Eagle April 30,1883, p.4)
Come and see the new exhibits at the Putnam-Cloud Tower House Museum in Omena, open on Fridays and Saturdays 11-2. Admission is free (donations welcome). https://www.omenahistoricalsociety.org/
Please join us for Community Coffee Hour, Thursdays 10 am.
Men's OBS coffee Hour, Fridays at 8:30 am.

Thanks to Michael Page for the Grand Rapids Eagle snippet, and to Mark Smith for his work on the vintage photo.

07/23/2026

More Lumber
The Kalchick Sawmill at Bass Lake

Note: every now and then we colorize an old photo, with judicious use of AI restoration software. We can have no sure way of knowing the actual colors, so we include a b&w version below as well

07/22/2026

It was not the timber that drew the early settlers. That the land around Omena was being cleared for farming, not for timber harvest is apparent from the 1870 and 1880 population census. The trees had to be cut down, the stumps pulled, and roots grubbed out and burned.

Please join us for Community Coffee Hour, Thursdays 10 am.
Men's OBS coffee Hour, Fridays at 8:30 am.

Photo of James Patrick and his horse Queenie, courtesy of David Valdez

07/15/2026

The Hotel Leelanau opened on Omena Heights in 1885, two years before the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. This hotel building was originally the Grove Hill New Mission School, opened by Rev. Peter Dougherty in 1853. Three decades later the boom times of Omena’s Resort Era began with this building.
The first summer residents in Omena were Shabwasung’s Odawa band. At least as early as 1830 the band had a seasonal encampment on Omena Point. They tended a mature apple orchard and grew traditional crops in clearings on Omena Heights.
The Aghosa band from Old Mission Peninsula began to settle and purchase land around Omena in 1850. Rev. Dougherty followed, moving the Presbyterian Mission from the Old to the New Mission Peninsula. The Grove Hill New Mission School operated from 1853-1867.
Please join us for Community Coffee Hour, Thursdays 10 am.
Men's OBS coffee Hour, Fridays at 8:30 am.