Empire is a village upon Lake Michigan in the northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Located in southwestern Leelanau County, its population was 362 at the 2020 census. The village is located within Empire Township, and is famous for its proximity to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Empire is home to the lakeshore’s headquarters, the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center.

Empire was founded in 1851. It was incorporated as a village in 1895 considering E. R. Dailey, the head of the Empire Lumber Company which was the main employer here, as the first president of the village. The city was named after the schooner “Empire”, which was icebound in the city during a storm in 1865.

The Empire Lumber Company operated from 1887 to 1917, dominating this once well-off lumber town. George Aylsworth operated the first mill amongst 1873 and 1883. Potter and Struthers built a second mill in 1885, which T. Wilce Company purchased in 1887. Called the Empire Lumber Company, it expanded to one of the largest and best equipped hardwood mills in the area, capable of producing up to 20 million feet of lumber a year. Docks, several businesses, and a railroad sprang occurring in Empire. Destroyed by fire in 1906, the mill was quickly rebuilt. The mill burned once more in 1917. With most of the handy virgin timber gone, the mill was not replaced.

The local Robert H. Manning Memorial Light was built in 1991 by O’Brien Brothers Construction as a memorial to Robert H. Manning, a lifelong resident of Empire and avaricious fisherman. Additionally, the beach has an very old anchor which was discovered by Douglas Manning, son of Robert H. Manning, and Michelle Stryker in 1977. Every year, the village of Empire celebrates the raising of the anchor upon the third Saturday in July.