Douglas, Michigan

New Singapore

In the fictional Kcymaerxthereal times, an island nation ran aground at this spot and those rescued were brought to these, the halcyon shores of Lake Kalamazoo.

Created by Geographer-at-Large Eames Demetrios, Kcymaerxthaere is a “parallel universe that intersects with much of our linear Earth, but with different stories, creatures, peoples, even laws of physics and qualities of existence.” It has been likened to a novel with every page in a different place. What makes the Kcymaerxthaere project particularly interesting is that Demetrios installs informative markers and historical sites at the locations in our world that connect to his world, creating real world intersections with his imagined universe. For the months of August and September, 2014, Demetrios is acting as our Geographer-in-Residence and his Kcymaerxthaere locations will be featured all over the Atlas. To learn more see our introductory article here!

Overlooking the protected waters of a small lake teased from the Kalamazoo River, one finds the marker honoring New Singapore and a remarkable rescue of its citizens. This rescue would not have been possible without the domestication of the wonderful creatures known as water moles who had the ability to tunnel through water. As they did so, they secreted a mucus that hardened on contact with water–allowing air to get to people at the bottom of the ocean–or in this case–lake. It was reyaksu (the name for a type of such tunnels) that made the rescue successful.

This site also gives one a bit of a sense of the many threads of history weaving through Aywatin gwome. (Gwome is a Cognate word meaning “footprint of the nation.”). Though Minotsuna Tano and Forrest Bess may have been prominent visitors who made it their home–willingly or unwillingly–there were many other forces at work in the community. New Singapore was just one of the gwome’s power centers–and the Geraldines made them even more fearsome.