Some of Muskegon’s earliest lumber mills stood in Pinchtown. In 1842, Joseph Stronach built a sawmill west of here on Muskegon Lake at Ruddiman’s Creek. George and John Ruddiman bought the mill in 1844. A flood swept it away in 1848, and the Ruddimans rebuilt it the following year. Newcomb McGraft and Anthony Schuyler Montgomery purchased the mill in 1875. The mill burned in 1890. From 1924 to 1991, Standard Oil Company, present-day Amoco, maintained tanks and docks on the site. Pinchtown was officially known as Ruddiman’s Addition to the city of Muskegon when William Ruddiman platted it in 1873. Township Clerk James Robinson gave the settlement its common name because it was pinched between the village of Lakeside and the city of Muskegon. On March 12, 1895, the Michigan legislature passed a bill, signed by Governor John T. Rich, annexing Pinchtown to the city. Pinchtown was bounded by Lakeshore Drive, Laketon Avenue, Ruddiman Creek, and a gully. A shopping district occupied this site from the 1890s to 1950s.