History of Zilwaukee

In 1848, two brothers named Daniel and Solomon Johnson settled an area on the Saginaw River, now known as Zilwaukee. The two brothers from New York constructed a sawmill on the river and quickly needed men to run the fast producing mill. A large German migration was occurring in the United States in the 1840’s, including a large German population center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To attract more local settlers, the Johnson’s named their establishment “Zilwaukie” to confuse the settlers into thinking that they were going to Milwaukee. A number of families subsequently located in Zilwaukie. The settlement began to flourish due to the lumber boom that occurred throughout the State of Michigan in the mid to late 1800’s.

With the lumber industry driving the economy of the area, the residents of the community believed that it was time to separate from the other of the townships in the county. On January 3, 1854 the board of directors established the “Township of Zilwaukie”. Available records indicate the spelling of “Zilwaukie” changed to the current “Zilwaukee” sometime between 1877 and 1896.

Zilwaukee continued to thrive with the population reaching 1,963 in 1890 during the last year of the lumber boom. As the new century neared the population dropped to as low as 740 in 1920. The Zilwaukee economy was revived in 1930 when Consumers Power constructed an electrical generating plant that was capable of producing 200,000 horsepower. More importantly the plant employed 150 people and provided the township a great tax base.

The City of Zilwaukee was chartered in November of 1963, and later incorporated as a city in 1964. The City of Zilwaukee saw an increase in population until the 1980’s when a decline occurred. In 1985, the City formed a Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA) to prevent deterioration and to promote economic growth. Since then, TIFA has assisted in the development of many new industries and jobs to the City of Zilwaukee. TIFA had an instrumental part in the development of Bridgeview Commercial Center, which is supposed to provide nearly 1,000 jobs when completion is finalized in 2005. As of 2000, there are 1,799 people residing in the City of Zilwaukee.