Saugatuck and Douglas: Michigan's Art Coast

The twin towns of Saugatuck and Douglas, where the Kalamazoo River meets Lake Michigan, are known across the Midwest as “the Art Coast of Michigan.” The roots go back over a century: in 1910, art teachers and students connected to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago started a summer art school here, the Ox-Bow School of Art, drawn by the dune-and-river scenery. Ox-Bow is still running today as an art school and artists’ residency, and downtown Saugatuck is packed with galleries, studios, and shops. The towns have long had a reputation as a warm, open, welcoming place — including as one of the Midwest’s most popular getaways for the LGBTQ+ community.

There’s deep history under the sand, too. At the mouth of the river once stood a busy lumber town called Singapore. After the surrounding pine was cut down, there was nothing to hold back the dunes, and the blowing sand slowly buried the town — today it’s gone, a local legend often called Michigan’s own “buried city.” You can dig into all of it, Singapore included, at the Saugatuck-Douglas History Center, which tells the story of the area’s lumber, shipping, and resort past. You can learn more at sdhistoricalsociety.org.