The Edgewater village and sawmill were located on the West end of Platte Lake, which is not part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but the railroad grade from the sawmill to the dock on Lake Michigan runs along the edge of the Platte River Campground. In fact, the hiking trail from the campground to Lake Michigan follows the old railroad grade. Take a walk to the back of any of the campground loops and take the trail to Lake Michigan and look for pilings that remain of the Edgewater Dock.
Unfortunately, there is essentially nothing left of the Edgewater sawmill and village today. The site is on the northwest shore of PlatteLake just north of where the Platte River exits the lake. The property is privately owned now. Please do not trespass.
The Edgewater sawmill was owned by a man named Little and his two sons. It was probably first built around 1880 and shut down around 1900. One son was the Head Sawyer for the mill, and one day he was putting a belt on one of the pulleys in the sawmill and his thumb got caught between the belt and pulley. He grabbed onto something to keep himself from being pulled into the machine and held on for dear life! His thumb was pulled right off his hand, but it likely saved his life. The other son ran the boarding house in town. He also raised pigs and had a pig pen in the woods, so the pigs could eat the beechnuts and the waste from the boarding house.