County note shelf
Allegan County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Allegan County. This shelf has 6 practical notes and 33 local stories.
39 notes
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- Rules and licenses Saugatuck capped its short-term rentals at one in five homes In 2024 Saugatuck capped vacation rentals at 20% of the housing in its R1 residential zones; existing rentals are grandfathered until the property changes hands, and the cap drew a lawsuit.
- History and culture Singapore, the lumber boomtown the dunes swallowed A lumber and shipbuilding town once stood at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River near Saugatuck; after the woods were cut for the 1871 fires, blowing sand buried it within a few years.
- History and culture The Felt Mansion, built by the man who invented the adding machine Calculator millionaire Dorr Felt finished his brick summer mansion in Laketown Township in 1928; his wife died six weeks later, he died soon after, and the estate later served as a seminary and a prison.
- Outdoors Crane's of Fennville: an apple orchard that started selling pie to survive Crane's Pie Pantry in Fennville grew out of a Depression-survival idea — sell the pie, not just the apples — on an orchard the Crane family has farmed since 1917.
- History and culture Dorr, Michigan: named for a man who lost a rebellion The Allegan County town of Dorr is named for Thomas Wilson Dorr, who led an armed 1842 uprising in Rhode Island to win the vote for ordinary men — and was jailed for it.
- History and culture How Hopkins got its name out of a hat When settlers couldn't agree on a name for their corner of Allegan County, nine men dropped their choices into a hat — and the slip that came out read 'Hopkins,' for a child who'd died young.
- Outdoors Lake Allegan: a 1,600-acre lake that's really a dam pond The Calkins Bridge Dam, finished in 1936, backs the Kalamazoo River into the 1,600-acre Lake Allegan, generating hydroelectric power while holding the river's water level steady upstream.
- History and culture Overisel, Michigan: a Dutch province dropped into Allegan County Twelve Dutch families settled Overisel in 1848 and named it for the province of Overijssel back home; the tight farming community still centers on two Reformed churches.
- History and culture Ox-Bow: the art colony on a bend of the Kalamazoo River Since 1910, painters from the Art Institute of Chicago have spent summers at Ox-Bow, a rustic art school tucked on the dunes and lagoon behind Saugatuck.
- History and culture Plainwell Ice Cream: 40,000 gallons a year from one corner shop On the corner of Bridge and Broad in Plainwell, three generations of the Gaylord family have churned out small-batch ice cream since 1978 — now 53 flavors and 40,000 gallons a year.
- History and culture The Allegan-County dam that lit Kalamazoo from 24 miles away The Trowbridge Dam on the Kalamazoo River carried Michigan's first long-distance high-voltage power line — 22,000 volts, 24 miles to Kalamazoo's streetlights, in 1899.
- History and culture The Edwardian ocean liner that spent 45 years docked in Douglas The SS Keewatin, a 1907 Great Lakes steamship, sat as a floating museum on the Kalamazoo River at Douglas from 1967 until it was towed home to Canada in 2012.
- Cars and driving The quarter-mile dragstrip in Martin that's been roaring since 1962 US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin opened in 1962 as Martin Dragway, got a $14 million rebuild in 2002, and still runs cars down a quarter mile of straight asphalt.
- Outdoors The swing bridge at New Richmond that used to turn for boats An 1879 iron swing bridge over the Kalamazoo River at New Richmond once pivoted open for riverboats; restored in 2004, it now carries walkers as the centerpiece of a county park.
- History and culture The Wayland library a widow paid for with her will Wayland's stone library on Main Street was built in 1900 from a $2,000 bequest left by Julia Henika, who died wanting her town to have a place to read.
- Outdoors Fennville throws a festival for the geese — and means it Fennville's Goose Festival, held since the 1980s, celebrates the thousands of Canada geese that winter at the nearby Fennville Farm Unit, an old peppermint farm the state bought in 1949.
- History and culture Hamilton was Rabbit River first The Heath Township village of Hamilton was first called Rabbit River, after the pine-country stream whose sawmills built the place; the township itself is named for an early figure, James M. Heath.
- History and culture Why downtown Wayland looks the way it does Wayland's Main and Superior street commercial core, much of it rebuilt after an 1883 fire, joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2021 as a 35-building downtown district.
- History and culture Graafschap: a village named with the Dutch word for 'county' Dutch settlers from the Bentheim region founded Graafschap south of Holland in 1847 and named it with their word for 'county'; the community still centers on its Christian Reformed church.
- History and culture Plainwell, the Island City — where city hall is an old paper mill Downtown Plainwell sits on an actual island between the Kalamazoo River and an 1856 millrace, and its city hall occupies the beautifully reborn paper mill.
- History and culture Saugatuck and Douglas: Michigan's Art Coast Saugatuck and Douglas are known as Michigan's Art Coast, with Ox-Bow, galleries, LGBTQ+-welcoming resort history, and the buried town of Singapore.
- History and culture The Gun Lake Tribe and Gun Lake Casino The Gun Lake Tribe is based in Wayland Township, and Gun Lake Casino has become a major Allegan County employer and regional destination.
- Outdoors 'Big Red': Holland's Beloved (and Not-Always-Red) Icon Holland's beloved Dutch-gabled icon, guarding a hand-dug channel into Lake Michigan — and famous for a coat of red it didn't wear until 1956.
- History and culture An 18th-Century Dutch Windmill Got On a Boat and Moved to Michigan De Zwaan, the only authentic working Dutch windmill in the U.S., was shipped from the Netherlands to Holland, Michigan in 1964 and dedicated in 1965.
- History and culture Five Million Tulips Bloom in One Michigan Town Every May Holland, Michigan throws the longest-running tulip festival in the U.S. — five million-plus tulips every May, a tradition begun in 1929.
- History and culture There's a Whole Michigan Town Buried Under the Sand Singapore was a Lake Michigan lumber boomtown near Saugatuck that the dunes swallowed whole after the surrounding forests were cut down.
- Outdoors Yes, there's a ski resort in Otsego Bittersweet Resort in Otsego Township has been southwest Michigan's ski hill since 1982, with six chairlifts and lights for night skiing.
- History and culture The Melon Heads of Saugatuck The Melon Heads legend warns of deformed children loose in the woods near Saugatuck's Felt Mansion — but the asylum at its center never existed.
- History and culture An 1886 iron bridge, a giant antique market, and one of Michigan's oldest fairs Allegan's downtown keeps an 1886 iron bridge as its centerpiece, hosts a big antique market all summer, and throws a county fair dating to 1852.
- Outdoors Oval Beach, a hand-cranked ferry, and the big dunes Saugatuck's outdoor draw includes Oval Beach, the hand-cranked chain ferry, Mount Baldhead, Saugatuck Dunes State Park, and dune rides.
- History and culture Paper towns: how Otsego and Plainwell made America's pages For a century the mills of Otsego and Plainwell made paper for the nation; the towns have spent the years since turning that heritage into new riverfronts.
- Home and property Living near the Palisades nuclear plant Homes around Covert and South Haven may sit inside the Palisades Nuclear Plant emergency planning zone while the plant is being brought back into service.
- Home and property The Kalamazoo River cleanup, and the fish advisory Kalamazoo River properties in Allegan County sit along an active PCB/Superfund cleanup corridor with a fish advisory buyers should understand.
- Outdoors The Allegan State Game Area and the great goose migration The Allegan State Game Area is a huge public-land anchor west of Allegan, known for trails, paddling, hunting, camping, and fall Canada geese.
- Outdoors Gun Lake and Yankee Springs: Barry County's playground Barry County centers on 2,600-acre Gun Lake and the 5,000-acre Yankee Springs Recreation Area — West Michigan's favorite lakes-and-trails weekend.
- Home and property Building near the Lake Michigan shoreline and on the dunes Lake Michigan shoreline and dune properties can be affected by Michigan critical-dune and high-risk-erosion-area permits.
- History and culture Blueberries, peaches, and the lake that makes them possible Southwest Michigan's fruit belt grows a huge share of America's blueberries — South Haven calls itself the Blueberry Capital of the World and has thrown a festival since 1963.
- 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.