The Loss of Singapore
Swallowed by the sand more than a century ago, Singapore is a famous ghost logging town in Michigan. Singapore was the casualty of erosion after the logging industry deforested the surrounding woodland. Founded in the 1830s, it was a lake port built up by speculators from New York who hoped it would gradually rise to the fame and success of Chicago and Milwaukee. The ruins now lie buried beneath the sand dunes of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River in Saugatuck Township, near the cities of Saugatuck and Douglas in Allegan County.
Situated about one mile from the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, Singapore was protected by sand hills from the storms of Lake Michigan. The logging industry had made the river an important trafficking place for logs. Massachusetts-born Oshea Wilder, who was convinced that southeastern Michigan would rely on pine lumber for many, built the first sawmill there in the 1830s. For several decades following Wilder's investment, the villlage of Singapore was a successful lumber and shipbuilding hub. At its height, the town boasted of three mills, two hotels, several general stores, and a bank, and was home to Michigan's first schoolhouse. Local historian Kit Lane has claimed that several hundred people made their homes there. Lane has argued that digging the village up would disturb the covering sand dunes. In the late 1850s, a partnership between O. R. Johnson and Francis B. Stockbridge formed an incorporation which bought both the sawmills in Singapore. The firm itself ran lumber yards in Chicago and had three schooners operating on Lake Michigan, including the O.R. Johnson (Lane, 16).
After the fires swept through Chicago, Holland, Peshtigo, and Manistee in late 1871, the area around Singapore was almost completely deforested, supplying lumber for rebuilding. With Holland and Chicago in dire need of lumber to rebuild, the woodlands of Allegan County, especially those that had protected Singapore from the 1871 fires, were cut down. The schooner O.R. Johnson made 63 trips from Singapore that year. Outgoing boats carried "Lumber board feet, 3,232,000." It was in 1873 that Singapore reached its height, with two sawmills and 20 buldings. In 1875, the O. R. Johnson and Francis B. Stockbridge incorporation began making plans to move the mill to St. Ignace. By the end of September in 1875, "nothing remain[ed] of a once thriving village but a few scattered houses, and hereafter Singapore must be considered among the things that were." Without the protective tree cover, the winds and sands coming off Lake Michigan quickly eroded the town into ruins and within four years had completely covered it. The town was vacated by 1875.
As Michigan's southwest residents battle erosion concerns and rising lake-levels, Singapore serves as a reminder of the power of natural forces.
