Named After a Demon or a Tribal Chief? Wabaningo, Michigan

Wabaningo is located in Muskegon County, where White Lake flows through a short channel into Lake Michigan at Sylvan Beach.

Wabaningo was originally settled in the 1700s by the Ottawa Native Americans. Although the original name was Sylvan Beach when it received a post office in 1897, the area was given the name Wabaningo, after Chief Wabiwindego, in 1837.

The post office operated sporadically as a summer postal station for the following years: 1897–1938, 1939–1942, 1944–1953, 1954–1965, and 1966–1999.

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These days, Wabaningo is no longer used for mail delivery.....replaced by the area’s original name, Sylvan Beach. Also located here is the historic White River Lighthouse; built in 1875, it includes a maritime museum.

So was it really named after a demon?

Of sorts, I guess. Wabaningo is also spelled – and pronounced – as Wabiwindego, Wobwindego, and Wobiwidigo. Translated, it means “White Wendigo”. A wendigo is a mythical creature or malevolent spirit, sometimes described as having human characteristics, that can possess human beings. If you become possessed by a wendigo, you may experience insatiable hunger, the desire to eat other humans, and an urge to commit murder.

Lovely, huh? But that’s not what the area was intended to be named after – the word also means ‘white giant’ which was the name of the above-mentioned Ottawa chief, and it was he whose name was used for Wabaningo.

Scroll down a way to see some old images of Sylvan Beach and Wabaningo going back over 100 years...