Singapore, perhaps Michigan's most famous ghost town, is one of the casualties of the four great fires (Chicago, Holland, Peshtigo, and Manistee) that ravaged the northern midwest on 8 October 1871. Its ruins now lie buried beneath the sand dunes of the Lake Michigan shoreline at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River in Saugatuck Township, near the cities of Saugatuck and Douglas.
Singapore, Michigan was founded in the 1836 by New York land speculator Oshea Wilder, who was hoping to build a port town to rival Chicago and Milwaukee. At its height, the town boasted of three mills, two hotels,...