Lost & Found : Ghost Towns of the Saugatuck Area

In the tumultuous 1830s, Michigan struggled to construct new towns, railroads, canals, and ports, establish a new banking system, and become a state, all at once. Around Saugatuck in western Michigan, many towns were created and abandoned within the decade. The departed residents and industries haunt the printed pages of old maps and litter the countryside with buried remains of old civilizations. "Lost and Found: Ghost Towns" of the Saugatuck Area honors some of these towns and separates fact from myth without destroying the air of mystery around these towns. Some of the towns included in "Lost and Found", like Naples and Breese, never made it beyond elegant maps created to entice investors. Others, like the small sawmill settlement of Singapore, had struggling settlers who lost their fight for survival and disappeared before the dawn of the twentieth century. Other formerly successful towns disappeared swiftly because of a sudden environmental or economic disruption. "Lost and Found" tells the story of towns that cannot be visited but which influenced the history of the Saugatuck area and its people.