Michigan’s Art Coast has a buried city under its sand dunes, plus a ferry you crank by hand: Here’s what to know

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Saugatuck’s got more than just a pretty beach

About 45 miles west of Grand Rapids, Saugatuck sits where the Kalamazoo River bends toward Lake Michigan. It calls itself the Art Coast of Michigan, and that title is not just marketing. More than 20 galleries thread through a downtown you can walk end to end in 20 minutes. But the galleries are only the start. Dunes tower over the river. A ferry runs on a hand-cranked chain. And somewhere under the sand near the river mouth, a whole town disappeared. Wikimedia Commons/WMrapids

How lumber and light turned a port into an art colony

Saugatuck spent its early years as a working lumber port on Lake Michigan. By the late 1800s, the logs were gone but the light stayed, and artists noticed. The dunes, the water, the quiet of the landscape drew painters and sculptors who stayed. In the early 1900s, the Ox-Bow School of Art, tied to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, set up here and gave the town a permanent creative backbone. The galleries and studios you walk into today grew out of that early momentum. Shutterstock

Walk Butler Street from one end to the other

Butler Street is where downtown Saugatuck breathes. The layout is compact, everything within a few blocks, and the pace slows the moment you step onto the sidewalk. Boutiques and gift shops sit next to galleries and cafes. You don’t need a plan. Just start at one end and wander. A jewelry maker shares a block with a print studio. A bookshop backs up against a restaurant with tables on the sidewalk. The whole street invites you to stop, look, and stay longer than you planned. Shutterstock

Meet the artists working right in front of you

Those 20-plus galleries are not just places to buy art off a wall. Many of them are working studios where you can watch a painter mid-canvas or talk to a sculptor about how a piece came together. Works range from oil paintings and watercolors to photography and large-scale sculpture, and the spaces themselves tell a story. Several galleries operate out of old commercial buildings that have been opened up and filled with light. Some evenings, the galleries host open-house events with live music spilling out onto the sidewalk. Shutterstock

The Saugatuck Center for the Arts used to bake pies

The Saugatuck Center for the Arts sits in the middle of downtown inside a building that once housed a pie factory. The bones of the old factory are still there, and the space has been turned into a year-round hub for exhibits, theater, film screenings, classes, and lectures. Local artists and out-of-town visitors mix easily here.

On any given week you might catch a photography show in the morning and a live theater performance at night. The building’s past is part of what makes it feel like Saugatuck and not anywhere else. Wikimedia Commons/Parkerdr

Take a turn at the crank on the last ferry of its kind

Near the foot of Water Street, a small flat-bottomed boat waits at the dock. This is the Diane, the Saugatuck Chain Ferry, and it crosses the Kalamazoo River by pulling itself along a chain that runs beneath the water. An operator turns a hand crank. The whole crossing takes only a couple of minutes, but riders are often invited to grab the crank themselves. According to the local history center, this is the last hand-cranked chain ferry still running in the United States. A ferry has made this same crossing since the 1800s. The ride costs $3 for adults, $1 for kids. Shutterstock

Climb 300 steps for a view across Lake Michigan

The chain ferry drops you on the far bank right at the base of Mount Baldhead, a sand dune that climbs steeply above the river. A wooden staircase of about 300 steps goes straight up the face of it. There are benches on the way if you need them, and most people do. At the top, the trees fall away and you get a long view over Lake Michigan, the harbor, and downtown Saugatuck laid out below. On the far side of the summit, a sandy trail drops through the trees toward the beach. Wikimedia Commons/tb2bfit

Oval Beach sits at the end of that sandy trail

Oval Beach curves in a wide crescent below the dunes, and the sand here is soft in a way that surprises people. Condé Nast Traveler has ranked it among the top shorelines in the world. National Geographic and MTV have both given it top honors in past lists. The water is Lake Michigan cold until late summer, and the dunes frame the beach so that it feels removed from everything else. In the evening, the sun drops straight into the lake from here. Parking runs a seasonal fee; the chain ferry is often the smarter way to arrive. Wikimedia Commons/Gpwitteveen

The Star of Saugatuck paddles you out toward the lake

From the downtown dock, the Star of Saugatuck takes passengers down the Kalamazoo River and toward open water on a narrated cruise that runs about 90 minutes. The boat is an authentic sternwheel paddleboat, and the big red wheel churning at the back is hard to stop watching. You pass wooded shorelines, waterfront homes, and open stretches of river before the lake comes into view ahead. The narration covers local history, wildlife, and the landscape you’re moving through, and no hiking or climbing is required. Shutterstock

Dune buggies have been tearing up these hills since 1954

Saugatuck Dune Rides load passengers into open-air dune buggies and head out across the shifting sand hills west of town. The operation has been running since 1954, and the drivers have the narration down to a mix of geology, local history, and enough humor to keep the ride moving. The whole thing lasts about 40 minutes and covers rolling dunes, patches of forest, and several scenic lookouts. The buggies climb and drop at angles that catch you off guard.

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The post Michigan’s Art Coast has a buried city under its sand dunes, plus a ferry you crank by hand appeared first on When In Your State.

Kids love it. Adults who thought they were too old for it tend to change their mind. Wikimedia Commons/Matthew T Rader

The dunes swallowed an entire town and kept it

On the dune ride and the paddleboat cruise, guides point to the same spot near the river mouth and tell the same story. Singapore was a lumber town that grew fast and died faster. When the timber ran out and the trees were gone, there was nothing to hold the dunes back. The sand moved in slowly, covering the buildings one by one. Today, nothing of Singapore shows above the surface. No walls, no rooflines, nothing. The whole settlement sits somewhere under the dunes, and the guides never let you forget it. Shutterstock

The boardwalk is the slowest, best part of any afternoon

Back on the downtown side of the river, a public boardwalk follows the Kalamazoo River along the edge of town. Boats drift past. The dunes rise across the water. The walk stays flat and easy, and it connects directly to the shops and galleries just a few steps away. There’s no agenda here. You sit on a bench, you watch a sailboat clear the channel, you let the afternoon go at whatever pace it wants. For a town with this many things to do, the boardwalk is where people tend to slow down and stay. Shutterstock

Visit Saugatuck’s Historic Downtown in Michigan

You can reach downtown Saugatuck at 133 Butler St, about 45 miles west of Grand Rapids and 12 miles south of Holland. The downtown is walkable, but bring a car if you plan to visit Oval Beach, the dune rides, or the neighboring town of Douglas. The Chain Ferry runs daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in season. Oval Beach charges a seasonal parking fee. Mount Baldhead’s stairway is steep, so wear real shoes and carry water in summer. Most seasonal attractions run from late spring through early fall. This article was created with AI assistance and human editing. Read more from this brand:

Holland, Michigan has a fire-red lighthouse, a climbable dune, and a secret tunnel through sand

No boardwalks, no snack bars, no crowds: just 2.5 miles of wild Lake Michigan shore

170 shops, a National Historic District, and Lake Michigan at the end of every block

The post Michigan’s Art Coast has a buried city under its sand dunes, plus a ferry you crank by hand appeared first on When In Your State.