About the Empire Area and Museum

First Settlers

Anishinaabek tribes lived in Michigan long before Europeans arrived, and some tribal artifacts have been recovered in the Empire area. European settlers arrived in the Empire area in the 1850s starting with John LaRue and his family, who relocated from the nearby Manitou Islands and from New York previously. They were soon followed by the families of Peter Stormer, George Aylsworth and others from the islands and elsewhere.

Empire Shipwrecks

The European settlers built the early town of Empire on the Lake Michigan shore with its own post office, schoolhouse, lumber mill, shipwrecks and more. The town was likely named after the steamboat Empire State that went aground here in 1849, and another namesake, the schooner Empire, became icebound offshore in 1865. The schooner Jennie & Annie was shipwrecked in Empire in 1872, and its remains are still periodically visible south of Sleeping Bear Point.

A Lumber Town

In 1887 the T. Wilce Company purchased and expanded the local lumber mill to form the Empire Lumber Company and provide hardwood for their flooring company in Chicago. Empire quickly became a booming lumber town with a population nearing 1,000. Empire was incorporated as a village in 1895, and E. R. Dailey, the head of the Empire Lumber Company, served as the village's first president. The Empire Lumber Company rebuilt the Empire mill when it burned in 1906, but the mill was not replaced when it burned again in 1917 since most of the area timber was gone.

Farming and Tourism

After the lumbering era, Empire's population decreased to about 400 current residents with seasonal spikes for summer visitors. The cleared land in the area was used for new homes, resorts, small businesses, farms and orchards, especially cherries.

A National Park

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was established in 1970 to protect the unique natural features of the area around Empire. This national park, which includes the Manitou Islands, protects 65 miles of shoreline and over 71,187 acres of the largest freshwater dune system in the world. Park headquarters are located at the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center in Empire.

The Museum

Empire's original fire-hose house became its first museum in 1976, and the current Empire Area Museum was dedicated in June 1987 to include additional buildings. The main museum building has a small store and two floors of historical exhibits. More exhibits are on display in the museum's auxiliary buildings: the Schoolhouse, Fire-Hose House, and Billy Beeman Barn.