New Buffalo Harbor Country Located by Beautiful Lake Michigan Warren Dunes State Park Pictured

Harbor Country Attractions

Harbor Country Website

Michiana - Grand Beach, Harbor Country

Union Pier, Harbor Country

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Lakeside, Harbor Country

Harbart-Sawyer, Harbor Country

New Buffalo Railroad Museum

Whittaker Woods Golf Community

The Story of New Buffalo

Wessell Whittaker was having a miserable day.  Bound for Chicago out of Buffalo, Wessel and his crew aboard the schooner Post Boy thought the end might be near.  A savage November storm in 1834 grabbed control of their vessel and hurtled it onto the Lake Michigan shore.  Aground and breaking up, the Post Boy was lost.

But, Wessel and his crew managed to struggle ashore near the current village of Grand Beach.  The New Yorkers, enroute to St. Joseph to report the loss of their ship, came upon a harbor which Whittaker was certain could rival the port of Chicago.  Captain Whittaker determined that he would return to the scene of his calamity and found his "New" Buffalo.

The Captain, of course, wasn't the first visitor to New Buffalo.  The Miami, Iroquois and Pottawatomi Indians all fought for control of the area.  The Indians, and the game and fish they cherished, also attracted French traders and missionaries.  But, it was the Captain who first made New Buffalo into a permanent community.  Whittaker, along with friends and relatives, returned in 1835 and began to develop and promote their dream.  Saw mills were constructed and log buildings for every purpose were built.  More settlers arrived from New York and the south with not dreams, but expectations, of riches to be harvested here.  Soon these pioneers learned the value of tourists.

Land travelers between Detroit and Chicago meandered through New Buffalo and spent their tourist dollars here.  But in the late 1840s, the Michigan Central Railroad Company completed the stretch of track between Niles and New Buffalo, making New Buffalo the end of the railroad line for travelers between Detroit and Chicago.  An unprecedented scale of tourism quickly reshaped the town's character.  Hotels, restaurants and numerous saloons selling whiskey at five cents a pint were established.

Although the railroad continued to contribute to the local economy, it was not until the 1900s and the age of the automobile that New Buffalo truly established its link to tourism.  In 1934 the State recognized New Buffalo as "The Gateway to Michigan" and built a tourist information center here.  The current Welcome Center on I-94 is the busiest in Michigan.

The dredging of New Buffalo's harbor began in the 1960s.  By 1975, New Buffalo's safe harbor became a reality and the new Whittaker Street bridge was dedicated.  Not quite a port to equal Chicago's, but Wessel's harbor was finally complete.

Historical information courtesy of the Harbor Country Chamber of Commerce.

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