Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Douglas, MI

Douglas, in Allegan County, Michigan, has the unusual official name 'City of the Village of Douglas' — it was a village inside Saugatuck Township until voters approved a city charter on December 13, 2004, making it independent of the township.

Douglas was first settled by European-Americans in 1851 as a lumber mill town called Dudleyville, and residents changed the name to Douglas in 1861; it was incorporated as a village in 1870.

The name Douglas reportedly honors American statesman Stephen A. Douglas, though other accounts say it was suggested by a settler relative who came from Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man.

Douglas's motto is 'The Village of Friendliness since 1870.'

Area sawmills around Douglas provided much of the lumber used to rebuild Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

After the local timber was cleared, the Douglas area became a center for growing and shipping fruit, especially peaches, and tourism and resorts grew into a mainstay of the economy.

Douglas had a population of 1,378 at the 2020 census, and the 2010 census counted 645 households spread among 1,075 housing units — a sign of how many homes there are seasonal or second homes.

The city has over 1.5 miles of Lake Michigan coastline and more than two miles of frontage on the Kalamazoo River and Lake Kalamazoo harbor, directly south of its twin city, Saugatuck.

Together with Saugatuck, Douglas forms Michigan's 'Art Coast,' and the city is known for galleries such as the Water Street Gallery, LaFontsee Galleries, and the Button Gallery.

Douglas neighborhoods include Beachmont, on Lakeshore Drive along Lake Michigan, and Summer Grove, about half a mile from the lake on Wiley Road.