Empire Lumber Company

The Empire Lumber Company operated from 1887 to 1917, dominating this once-booming lumber town. Empire, incorporated in 1895, derived its name from the schooner Empire which was icebound here during a storm in 1865. George Aylsworth operated the first mill between 1873 and 1883. Potter and Struthers built a second mill in 1885, which T. Wilce Company purchased in 1887. Called the Empire Lumber Company, it expanded to one of the largest and best equipped hardwood mills in the area, capable of producing up to twenty million feet of lumber a year. Docks, several businesses, and a railroad sprung up in Empire. Destroyed by fire in 1906, the mill was quickly rebuilt. The mill burned again in 1917. With most of the nearby virgin timber gone, the mill was not replaced. Empire is now a picturesque village near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.