Onekama will hold its annual Oenkama Days this summer, including fireworks on Aug. 7. The village will celebrate the sesquicentennial of the river channel and its post office, essentially the beginning of the village, from June through October. (Courtesy photo)
Onekama village plans sesquicentennial bash SCOTT FRALEY VENTURE STAFF WRITER
Onekama OneFifty website. A week before, the postmaster general appointed a postmaster to an office at the newly named village of Onekama. Hence, 2021 is the sesquicentennial anniversary of these two events.
The village of Onekama is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the channel from Portage Lake to Lake Michigan, the creation of Onekama’s first post office and the first Manistee County Fair. Local homesteaders took matters into their own hands when they tired of their conflict with the Porter Lumber Milling Company, whose dam at Portage Creek flooded their farmland. They illegally dug a small trench – by hand – from Lake Michigan to Portage Lake to lower the lake to its original depth. On the night of May 14, 1871 when the trench was completed, the water rushed out taking with it
Residents of the two-lake town aim to prove their community is still going strong.
Work on the Portage Lake channel continued in spring 2019; it began in spring 2018. Now, in 2021, Onekama is marking the sesquicentennial of the channel and the first post office in the village. (File photo) woods and sand. It also created a channel 500 feet wide and 12 feet deep. “The channel brought
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great opportunity for the homesteaders and the mill and remains to this day an integral part of of the Onekama community,” according to the
To mark the occasion, organizers plan a months-long sesquicentennial celebration that kicks-off June 11 with the Lion’s Community Dinner and Settlers & Shoreliners Celebration. The banquet begins at 5:30 p.m. and will feature a presentation on local history, titled “Settlers and Shorelines.” Other activities planned for “Onekama OneFifty” celebrations include boat races and other
