From lumber capital to car-parts town

For a few decades in the 1800s, Saginaw called itself the Lumber Capital of the World — and it wasn’t far off. The valley was covered in towering white pine, and the rivers were the perfect way to float logs down to the sawmills that lined the Saginaw River. Lumberjacks and “shanty boys” filled the camps, lumber barons built mansions, and the mills shipped out enough pine to help build the growing country. The city you see today actually grew from two rival towns — Saginaw and East Saginaw — that sat across the river from each other until they merged in 1890.

When the great pine forests were finally cut over, Saginaw reinvented itself as a factory town. General Motors became the big employer, with plants like Saginaw Steering Gear turning out car parts by the millions through the mid-1900s. You can take all of this in at the Castle Museum downtown — a striking 1898 building that looks like a French château (it was actually built as the post office) and now holds the county’s history under one roof. It’s on Federal Avenue, run by the county historical society.