Empire, MI

Empire is a Lake Michigan village in Leelanau County's northwestern Lower Peninsula, within Empire Township and near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The 2020 census counted 362 residents. The village was founded in 1851 and incorporated in 1895, and the shoreline still sets the tone: a broad beach separates Lake Michigan from the smaller South Bar Lake. From the beach and nearby roads, the dunes, Manitou islands, and lake horizon become part of the town's everyday view.

Empire also serves as the front door to Sleeping Bear Dunes. The Philip A. Hart Visitor Center sits on M-72 just east of M-22, with park maps, passes, exhibits, and rangers who help visitors get oriented. The Empire Area Museum fills in the human side of the landscape, tracing the old post office, schoolhouse, lumber mill, and shipwrecks that shaped the community. The Empire Bluffs trail carries people up toward the views that appear on so many area postcards. Empire is a small lakeshore village with a national park headquarters, a beach between two lakes, and a local museum that keeps the working shoreline in view.