Wabaningo is a small unincorporated community of Fruitland Township, Muskegon County

Muskegon County, Michigan

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 170,200 people, 63,330 households, and 44,267 families residing in the county. The population density was 334 people per square mile . There were 68,556 housing units at an average density of 135 per square mile...

 in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. It is situated where the White Lake

White Lake (Michigan)

- Muskegon County :The largest White Lake is in Muskegon County, Michigan, formed by the White River. The city of Montague, Montague Township and White River Township are on the north side of the lake. The city of Whitehall, Whitehall Township, and Fruitland Township or on the south side of the lake...

 flows through a short navigation channel into Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

 at 43°22′31"N 86°25′36"W.

Wabaningo, now a resort community, was settled before 1833. It was first called Sylvan Beach, but the post office, established in 1897, was named Wabaningo, after a local Ottawa

Ottawa (tribe)

The Odawa or Ottawa, said to mean "traders," are a Native American and First Nations people. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe nation. Their original homelands are located on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, on the Bruce Peninsula in...

 chief. It was made a branch of the Whitehall

Whitehall, Michigan

Whitehall is a city in Muskegon County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,884 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the southwest corner of Whitehall Township. Montague, Michigan is its neighbor....

 office in 1954. The office operated as a summer post office from 1897-1938, 1939-1942, 1944-1953, 1954-1965, and 1966-1999. Wabaningo is no longer an acceptable name for delivery, although Sylvan Beach is an acceptable name with the Whitehall ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

 49463.

It is also the location of the White River Light station, which includes a lighthouse built in 1875, which now houses a small lighthouse and maritime museum. The original Fresnel lens

Fresnel lens

A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...

is on display there.