Silver Beach opened as a resort in 1891 when local businessmen in boat building Logan Drake and Louis D. Wallace built vacation cottages as Silver Beach Amusement and Realty Company along Lake Michigan.
After the park was established, two of the earliest aviators, Augustus Moore Herring and Logan Archbold Vilas, used the beach to experiment with aircraft, the latter being the first person to fly across Lake Michigan when he flew from Silver Beach to Chicago.