Zilwaukee Was Named To Trick Settlers Into Thinking It Was Milwaukee

Two brothers from New York once tricked settlers into moving to Michigan by naming their town to sound like Milwaukee. It actually worked.

Zilwaukee is a small city in Saginaw County with roughly 1,500 residents. When the community was established in 1854, its name was originally spelled “Zilwaukie.” The modern spelling, Zilwaukee, didn’t become common until the late 1800s.

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So, where did that unusual name come from? According to local history, it may have been chosen to confuse potential settlers.

Brothers Daniel and Solomon Johnson moved to the area from New York and built a sawmill along the Saginaw River. They needed workers and families to settle nearby, but convincing people to relocate to the middle of Michigan wasn’t exactly easy.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, however, was booming. The brothers reportedly named their new settlement “Zilwaukie” in hopes that prospective settlers would mistake it for Milwaukee—or at least assume it was another thriving Midwestern destination.

Basically, it was geographical clickbait before clicks existed.

As ridiculous as the plan sounds, it may have worked. According to an archived History of Zilwaukee, more families moved into the area as Michigan’s lumber industry took off.

Personally, I think “Nilwaukee” would have been more honest. After all, “nil” means zero or nonexistent—but honesty probably wasn’t going to fill the sawmill.

Zilwaukee reached nearly 2,000 residents in 1890. Its population has risen and fallen dramatically since then, yet the little Michigan city still has roughly as many residents today as it did during the lumber boom.

So, did Zilwaukee really trick people into moving there? Maybe. But if nothing else, the name gave the city a story that people are still talking about more than 170 years later.