That one time in Michigan: When a town disappeared into the sand

The lumber town that logged itself to death.

The Great Lakes are arguably the most important geographical features of the Midwest. Beyond simply being breathtakingly beautiful, they’ve offered those who lived near them access to fresh water and—more importantly to European settlers—trade routes. To this day, the coasts of the Great Lakes are dotted with bustling cities that have grown thanks to the trade that flows through these waters.

But not every town can be so lucky.

Hidden in the sands just north of modern-day Saugatuck lies a ghost town whose port was intended to rival the likes of Chicago. But its primary economy ended up becoming its undoing.

Here’s a short history of Singapore, Michigan.

A port town to rival the best

Singapore, c. 1850. (Source: National Museum of the Great Lakes)

Our story begins in the early 1800s with a man named Oshea Wilder, a land speculator from New York.

In 1831, Wilder pioneered the area around present-day Calhoun County. Working with a pair of sibling land surveyors called the Ketchum Brothers, also from New York, Wilder helped establish the village of Marshall, which by 1835 had grown to a population of about 300.

With the experience under his belt, Wilder was appointed by then-territorial governor Stevens T. Mason to a committee whose goal was to determine Allegan County’s seat. So, Wilder made the trip northwest to survey the area.

Seeing potential in the land, Wilder purchased a 100-acre plot of land in the county and established the town of Singapore. His goal was to build a port town to rival the likes of Chicago and Milwaukee.

Wilder started a sawmill in the town the following year, followed by a bank in 1838, according to the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

The pieces seemed to be in place for Singapore to become a thriving community, but the town wouldn’t last past the century.

Setbacks

Bank of Singapore notes. (Source: Public Domain)

If it’s possible to consider a town unlucky, Singapore might be one of the best examples.

One of its earliest controversies was due to its “wildcat” bank. Before the United States had a federal banking system, these banks were operated in remote areas with limited financial infrastructure. The banks issued their own currency and were required to hold enough hard currency (like gold or silver coins) to cover at least one-third of the circulating banknotes but, more often than not, were unable to do so. As the bank printed more currency than it was capable of redeeming, the notes would steadily become more useless. In an account documented by the National Museum of the Great Lakes, an old settler remembered his father paying $40 for a darning needle in Singapore bills.

In 1842, just six years after its founding, Singapore was beset by a 40-day-long blizzard. Cold and light on food, the blizzard might have spelled the end for the townsfolk if not for the chance occurrence of a shipwreck. When the schooner Milwaukie, filled with barrels of flour, crashed on the Lake Michigan shore near Singapore, several of those barrels made their way into the hands of the locals, and they were able to sustain themselves through the winter.

In 1846, Wilder left Singapore and sold the town. Going through several owners, it eventually landed in the hands of Francis B. Stockbridge. Stockbridge was instrumental in building the first three-masted schooner on Lake Michigan, which supplied lumber from Singapore to Chicago. The next decades were prosperous for the lumber town as more sawmills and other services entered. At its height, Singapore, with a population of several hundred people, had three mills, two hotels, several general stores, a bank, and a schoolhouse.

As to the earlier mentioned bank, a scandal arose shortly after the Civil War when inspectors came to make sure Singapore’s bank had enough hard currency to cover their notes. After failing to produce the currency, the bank was dissolved.

Becoming a ghost town

An image purportedly showing the erosion of Singapore in the early 1900s. (Source: National Museum of the Great Lakes)

Singapore’s death knell came in 1871, as fires plagued cities around the Great Lakes. It was only logical that Singapore, being a lumber town, would step in to help supply the cities with building materials. But there was one key problem: Singapore deforested the areas over dunes, which in part led to a lack of protective tree cover for the town (For a more in-depth scientific explanation, check out this video).

Winds and sand quickly swept across Singapore and within four years, turned the town into sand-covered ruins. One local legend tells of a Singapore resident living in a three-story house who refused to move as the sands came in. Once the first floor of his house was enveloped by sand, he simply moved everything to the second floor rather than calling it quits. It wasn’t until the sand reached the roof that he eventually moved.

Singapore is now mostly dunes and trees, with the area being the site of controversial housing developments in recent years.

Today, a historical marker in nearby Saugatuck tells the tragic story of Singapore with a passage that reads:

“Beneath the sands near the mouth of the Kalamazoo River lies the site of Singapore, one of Michigan’s most famous ghost towns. Founded in the 1830’s by New York land speculators, who hoped it would rival Chicago or Milwaukee as a lake port, Singapore was in fact, until the 1870’s, a busy lumbering town. With three mills, two hotels, several general stores, and a renowned ‘Wild-cat’ bank, it outshone its neighbor to the south, ‘The Flats,’ as Saugatuck was then called. When the supply of timber was exhausted the mills closed, the once bustling waterfront grew quiet. The people left, most of them settling here in Saugatuck. Gradually, Lake Michigan’s shifting sand buried Singapore.”