Every year, the Jesuits come to their idyllic retreat on the outskirts of Omena. Some are still learning, in the process of dedicating the rest of their lives to the faith. Others already serve busy congregations in the hustle and bustle of Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago or other Midwest locales.

In the quiet and relative stillness of the north country, they all find peace in the Jesuit retreat called Villa Marquette. The picturesque property, which sits just south of downtown Omena along M-22, provides refuge from the rigors of daily life and is an excellent place to connect with both nature and God.

Mary Stanton, who runs Leelanau Christian Neighbors, grew up on the property as her father served as the caretaker there. It can take 10-12 years for men to train to become Jesuits (which are members of a large male Catholic religious order called the Society of Jesus) and Stanton is filled with fond memories of the “men in formation” who came year after year.

“They just loved it up here so much,” Stanton tells The Ticker. “As kids, we’d go frog hunting or turtle hunting with them, or go for walks in the woods. And they would take this boat out in the evening on Omena Bay and they would just float in the bay and sing. People would sit there at the bar just to hear them – it was so beautiful.”

Villa Marquette is still owned used by the Jesuits, though for a variety of reasons (including a decline of men entering the faith) it doesn’t see the number of visitors it once did. The roughly 80-acre property consists of fields, woodlands and a variety of buildings almost entirely built by the Jesuits over years. Large, mature trees surround quaint white structures used for lodging, worship and more.

“It really is a very special place for many, many people. And because of the history and the things that the brothers have built, there's this great sense of history of the men who've walked there, who have vacationed there,” Brother Denis Weber, a Jesuit who manages the property, tells The Ticker. "You feel like they're still a part of it.”

About 130 Jesuits came over the course of this summer, Weber says. It’s a considerable number, but down from the many hundreds that would come years ago. But that makes it no less important to the Jesuits, who remain dedicated to the property.

“It really has a lot of rich history,” Weber says. “We’ll always maintain it as our summer villa and maintain the buildings the best we can.”

The property does indeed have a rich and fascinating history. According to information provided by the Omena Historical Society, it once was owned by the family of none other than George Armstrong Custer, who famously died at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Custer (or his family) sold it in the 1870s to a man named Rinaldo Putnam, who in 1893 sold it to Cincinnati businessman Francis H. Cloud.

“Custer has such an incidental connection, but it’s the one that captures everyone’s attention,” Marsha Buehler, an Omena historian and descendant of the Cloud family, tells The Ticker. 

Custer was married to a Monroe native named Libby Bacon, Buehler says, and her father had considerable real estate interests in Northern Michigan that passed on to his daughter upon his death in 1866.

In any case, Francis Cloud’s son, Charles Cloud, acquired the property as a summer retreat for the Jesuits in 1936. Charles was at the time president of the University of Detroit (a Jesuit institution). Though it was after then that regular waves of Jesuits began coming to the property, they had been coming informally for many years prior.

The brothers set to work building a dormitory and other structures, and enlarged the old Putnam farmhouse, which became known as the Tower House (after the tower added by Jesuits). Years later, the Jesuits donated that structure to the Omena Historical Society, which moved it to Omena in 2004. It is now called the Putnam-Cloud Tower House Museum and serves as OHS headquarters.

OHS president Sally Viskochil, who for nearly five decades owned Tamarack Gallery in Omena, has many fond memories of the Jesuit heydays, when many hundreds came to town every year.

“Over the years it’s sort of ebbed and flowed in terms of the number of them that would come up, but in the 70s and 80s, there was a lot of them who would be there…and it was like having the world’s best neighbors. It was always an asset when they were here,” she tells The Ticker. “And they did enjoy it tremendously. I mean, how could you not?”

Viskochil is grateful for the Jesuits for not only their donation of the Tower House, but their diligent care of Villa Marquette over the decades.

“It’s just gorgeous. When you’re driving into Omena and you go past all of those beautiful woods, it’s all because of them,” she says. “And they’ve also taken such good care of the buildings themselves. It’s such a beautiful place, and it enhances the entry into our little village and makes it more special.”

The Jesuits took another big preservation step recently when they permanently protected an additional 80 wooded acres behind (to the west) of their main 80-acre campus. The Jesuits first worked with the Leelanau Conservancy to place a conservation easement on the property (which restricts development), then donated the property outright to the Conservancy.

Matt Heiman, natural land protection director for the Leelanau Conservancy, said that the property will likely be turned into a public preserve if the Conservancy can iron out adequate access points. Regardless, he says, it’s a tremendous property to protect from a natural features standpoint, particularly as it includes a lengthy stretch of Weaver Creek.

“The vast majority of (wildlife) moves up and down riparian corridors, so any time you can protect this large of a stretch of a first-order groundwater stream…is really exciting,” he tells The Ticker. “And then, of course, there’s the water quality protection that comes from keeping the 80 acres from being developed and converted to residential use.”