GeoDjango error: 'DatabaseOperations' object has no attribute 'geo_db_type'

Question

I've been picking apart this problem for about a week. I have looked at all of the other stackoverflow posts and cant figure it out. Anyway, I'm trying to add a geodjango app to my project. This project is still in development, anyway, I have two databases, the default and one labeled locations_db. I want my geodjango functionality in the locations database and all the other stuff in the default database. The locations database is a postGIS database that is working fine and the default is a mysql database. I have tested the locations database using postGIS shell and I started a new django project and made it pure geodjango. Both worked fine. However when I attempt to run any kind of manage.py command, it throws the error: 'DatabaseOperations' object has no attribute 'geo_db_type'. I tried migrating with the --database option and using a database router. How can I resolve this issue? For reference, here is my settings.py excerpt concerning the databases:

DATABASES = {
'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
    'NAME': 'xxxx',
    "USER":"xxxx",
    "PASSWORD":"xxxxxxxxx",
    'HOST': 'xxxxxxxxxx',
    'PORT': 'xxxx',
},
'locations_db':{
    'ENGINE':"django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis",
    'NAME': 'xxxxxxxxxx',
    "USER":"xxxxxxxxx",
    "PASSWORD":"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    'HOST': 'xxxxxxxxx',
    'PORT': 'xxxx',
}
}
...
DATABASE_ROUTERS = ['locations.router.Router']
DATABASES['locations_db']['ENGINE'] = 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis'

Here is my router:

class Router(object): 
    def db_for_read(self, model, **hints):
        "Point all operations on locations models to 'locationsdb'"
        if model._meta.app_label == 'locations':
            return 'locations_db'
        return None

    def db_for_write(self, model, **hints):
        "Point all operations on locations models to 'locationsdb'"
        # print("working not in locations?")
        if model._meta.app_label == 'locations':
            print(model._meta.app_label)
            return 'locations_db'
        return None

    def allow_relation(self, obj1, obj2, **hints):
        "Allow any relation if a both models in locations app"
        # if obj1._meta.app_label == 'locations' and obj2._meta.app_label == 'locations':
        #     return True
        # # Allow if neither is locations app
        # elif 'locations' not in [obj1._meta.app_label, obj2._meta.app_label]: 
        #     return True
        if(obj2._meta.app_label == 'locations' or obj1._meta.app_label == "locations"):
            return True
        return None

    def allow_migrate(self, db, model):
        if(db == "locations_db"):
            return model._meta.app_label == 'locations'
        elif model._meta.app_label == 'locations':
            return False
        else:
            return None


    def allow_syncdb(self, db, model):
        # print("working not in locations?")
        if db == 'locations_db' or model._meta.app_label == "locations":
            print(model._meta.app_label)
            return False # we're not using syncdb on our legacy database
        else: # but all other models/databases are fine
            return True

and my model:

class Locations(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=254)
    area = models.IntegerField()
    pop2005 = models.IntegerField('Population 2005')
    fips = models.CharField('FIPS Code', max_length=2)
    iso2 = models.CharField('2 Digit ISO', max_length=2)
    iso3 = models.CharField('3 Digit ISO', max_length=3)
    un = models.IntegerField('United Nations Code')
    region = models.IntegerField('Region Code')
    subregion = models.IntegerField('Sub-Region Code')
    lon = models.FloatField()
    lat = models.FloatField()

    # GeoDjango-specific: a geometry field (MultiPolygonField), and
    # overriding the default manager with a GeoManager instance.
    mpoly = models.PolygonField()
    objects = models.GeoManager()

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

EDIT: I am using django 1.8 aka the Development version. postGIS version 2.1 and postgres version 9.3