In 1910, the Powell River Company began construction of its mill in the townsite. The site was already being used by the Michigan-Puget Sound Logging Company for their booming grounds. With the construction taking place, they needed to relocate, and moved their operations to the present day Willingdon Beach site.
This area became known as "Michigan's Landing". The logging company's railway was also relocated following along what is now the beach trail. When logging ended in 1918, the Powell River Company decided to lift the railway tracks.
A man by the name of Bill Fishleigh began lifting the ties and filling in the holes by hand. Eventually, the railway was transformed into a cycling path. On July 1, 1928, Michigan's Landing was officially renamed Willingdon Beach after Lord Willingdon, the Governor General of Canada.

As you walk along the trail, you will find historical evidence of Sliammon First Nations life here on the coast, in the form of "middens" and "culturally modified trees". A midden can be described as a large mound of discarded shells, indicating that collection and harvesting of shellfish had taken place there. The middens can be several feet in depth and an inch of shell midden may take three hundred years to form. The culturally modified trees have only been recently identified as cedar trees that have had strips of bark removed to make baskets, mats, hats, blankets, belts, and ceremonial costumes. The Western Red Cedar was an essential resource for the Sliammon peoples.