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Old 10-10-2017, 01:23 PM
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Arrow Army Corps orders archaeological survey of lost town buried by dunes

Army Corps orders archaeological survey of lost town buried by dunes
By Amy Biolchini amy_biolchini@mlive.com
RE: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...haeologic.html

(Photo on site only): An 1869 photo of Singapore, considered the best to be in existence. Shows the lumber mill in the foreground and the schooner O.R. Johnson, which regularly hauled timber from Singapore to Chicago. (Courtesy of the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society)

SAUGATUCK TWP., MI -- The legend of the lost lumber mill town buried by the shifting dune sands along Lake Michigan may be resurfacing.

As a part of its review of a developer's permit application to dig out 241,750 cubic yards of sand and build a marina off of the Kalamazoo River near Saugatuck, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is requesting an archaeological survey be conducted first.

The Army Corps expects the survey would involve limited excavation to see if archaeological resources might be present, as well as a review of available information and maps, said Katie Otanez, regulatory project manager for the Corps in Detroit.

The request comes as the Army Corps considers a permit application from property owner Jeff Padnos on his North Shores of Saugatuck development.

Working with local developer Brian Bosgraaf of Cottage Home, Padnos wants to build 40 homes on the sandy, 300-acre property on the north side of the Kalamazoo River where it meets Lake Michigan.

The most controversial part of the proposal -- and why the Army Corps is involved -- is the developer's plans to dig out 241,750 cubic yards of sand in order to build a 1,600-foot-long marina off of the river. Plans call for 33 boat slips and 23 homes to be built around the marina.

The Army Corps permit for the marina is contingent on a separate permit approval from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The DEQ is holding a public hearing on the marina request 6:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at the auditorium in Saugatuck High School.

This isn't the first time the lost mill town of Singapore has come up in the past decade, as the property's former owner -- the late oil tycoon Aubrey McClendon -- had lofty development plans for the property as well. Legal challenges delayed the project, and the land went up for sale after McClendon's untimely death.

But this is the first request for an archaeological survey of the property by a regulatory agency.

In 1836 the lumber mill town of Singapore was built on the north side of the Kalamazoo River near where it meets Lake Michigan. Business boomed and the town grew to several hundred people until 1871, when demand for lumber after the great fires in Chicago and Holland left the forests bare.

That was the end of Singapore. Most of the buildings were dismantled and some were moved to Saugatuck.

But did the remains become lost under the blowing dune sands? Local historian Kit Lane wrote a book, "Buried Singapore: Michigan's Imaginary Pompeii," in which a woman who visited in 1883 from Iowa wrote that about a dozen or so houses, a hotel and part of a mill remained "partially buried in sand and in good shape."

Otanez said available information shows there's a potential for historically important resources on the site.

The Army Corps is working with the developer and the State Historic Preservation Office on the design of the survey, Otanez said.

Bosgraaf said most of the study has already been completed.

"We anticipated it," Bosgraaf said of the request for the archaeological survey. "It's a pretty standard procedure. The consultants that we've been working with have been through this before."

Bosgraaf believes the area where the town was won't be dug up during development.

Bosgraaf maintains that when the Army Corps dug a new channel for the Kalamazoo River in 1906, the spoils were piled on top of where the former saw mills used to be.

That hill of spoils and the ground underneath won't be touched in the development, Bosgraaf said.

"It's kind of a non-factor," Bosgraaaf said. "There's nothing there -- if there is anything there it is covered by a big pile of dirt that the government put there and is protecting by a critical dunes slope."

David Swan, executive director of the Saugatuck Coastal Dunes Alliance, has opposed the North Shores development since its introduction. The conservation group has been active since McClendon's plans for the property were first introduced - and Swan's efforts were recently acknowledged with the Activist of the Year award from the West Michigan Environmental Action Council.

Swan said Bosgraaf's statement ignores what else could be on the property.

"I think that completely ignores what historians and archaeologists have said," Swan said.

The developer will be required to hire the archaeologist himself -- but the findings may not be made public, Otanez said.

The Army Corps can only request an archaeological survey be done on areas where the Army Corps has jurisdiction: the area where the marina would be excavated, and where the excavated material will be placed on the property and on the beach.

There are other areas slated for development -- including home sites off of Lake Michigan and off the Kalamazoo River -- that the Army Corps cannot request a survey of, Otanez said.

If the survey finds something that is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or could be considered a historical resource for a Native American tribe, the Army Corps would have to determine if the development would have a negative impact and if that could be avoided, Otanez said.

Swan said an 1873 plat map of Singapore shows the cemetery and the sawmill at the turn of the Kalamazoo River.

"The proposed Padnos marina would go between Detroit Street and Broad Street," Swan said.

The Coastal Dunes Alliance is also challenging the Saugatuck Township Planning Commission's conditional preliminary approval for the marina channel in Allegan County court, claiming it violates the township's zoning law.
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