County note shelf
Alger County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Alger County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 11 local stories.
15 notes
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- Outdoors Grand Island, the wild island off Munising Half a mile off Munising lies Grand Island -- about 13,500 acres of Lake Superior woodland with no cars, reachable by ferry, once owned by an iron company and now a national recreation area.
- Outdoors Grand Marais and the Grand Sable Dunes At the quiet eastern end of Pictured Rocks, the harbor town of Grand Marais opens onto the Grand Sable Dunes, Sable Falls, the Log Slide, and the 1874 Au Sable Light.
- History and culture How Alger County got its name Alger County was carved from Schoolcraft County in 1885 and named for Russell A. Alger -- a lumber baron, Civil War cavalry general, and the sitting governor of Michigan at the time.
- Money and taxes Is there a city income tax in Munising? Munising charges no city income tax -- and no community in the entire Upper Peninsula does. The nearest one is Grayling, well over a hundred miles south.
- History and culture Munising's furnace, tannery, and paper mill Munising takes its name from the Ojibwe word for 'at the island,' and was born twice -- once around an 1867 iron furnace, and again when the railroad arrived in 1895. Its paper mill has run for more than a century.
- Outdoors Pictured Rocks, the first national lakeshore Just east of Munising, Lake Superior meets the multicolored sandstone cliffs of Pictured Rocks -- the first national lakeshore in the United States, best seen from the water.
- Outdoors The waterfalls of Munising Munising sits in one of the most waterfall-rich corners of Michigan -- Alger County has around seventeen named falls, from the easy paved path at Munising Falls to dozens hidden in the woods.
- Outdoors America's First National Lakeshore Is in the U.P. — and the Cliffs Are Painted by Minerals America's first national lakeshore is in the U.P., where Lake Superior cliffs rise 200 feet and minerals paint them in streaks of color.
- History and culture Grand Island: A Tycoon's Private Kingdom on Lake Superior For ninety years, 13,500 acres off Munising were one iron magnate's private kingdom; today it's a wild National Recreation Area.
- Outdoors Munising, the Waterfall Capital Munising calls itself the Waterfall Capital of Michigan, and with around seventeen named falls in Alger County — several reachable on a short walk — it has earned the title.
- Outdoors Sable Falls At the eastern edge of Pictured Rocks, Sable Falls drops about 75 feet of sandstone to a wild Lake Superior beach — down a staircase of around 168 steps.
- Outdoors Laughing Whitefish Falls One of the best names in Michigan, and a shape to match: the Laughing Whitefish River fans out about a hundred feet down a stepped limestone wall in a quiet, uncrowded state park.
- Home and property What to know about well and septic in Alger County Outside Munising, most of Alger County is on private well and septic. Michigan has no statewide septic code, and the local health department doesn't require an inspection when a property is sold -- so buyers should get their own.
- Money and taxes Buying in a township? Watch for special assessments on top of your taxes Michigan township buyers should check for special assessments that can add separate road, sewer, water, lighting, sidewalk, or drain charges.
- Money and taxes In Michigan, you get two property-tax bills a year — not one Most Michigan property owners get separate summer and winter tax bills, with local rules deciding what lands on each bill.