County note shelf
Berrien County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Berrien County. This shelf has 8 practical notes and 31 local stories.
39 notes
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- History and cultureBear Cave: a hiding place on the Underground RailroadNear Buchanan, a rare tufa-rock cave above the St. Joseph River sheltered freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad — and a robber's loot hidden there in 1875 inspired the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery.
- History and cultureBefore Bridgman was a beach town, it was a sawmill that kept burning downBridgman began in 1856 as Charlotteville, a lumber town whose sawmill burned three times; the lumber is long gone, but the dunes that drew Chicagoans in the 1920s became Weko Beach.
- History and cultureBlossomtime started with a sermon about fruit treesThe Blossomtime Festival began in 1906 when a Benton Harbor minister told his congregation to go look at the orchards in bloom; its Grand Floral Parade has crossed between Benton Harbor and St. Joseph since 1924.
- History and cultureDeer Forest: the petting zoo that 3.5 million people rememberFrom 1949 to 2014, generations of southwest Michigan kids fed deer and llamas at Coloma's Deer Forest and rode the train through Storybook Lane; the North Berrien museum keeps its relics.
- History and cultureGrand Beach: a resort community that became its own villageGrand Beach began as a planned resort on the Lake Michigan dunes, added cottages, golf, and the Golfmore Hotel, and incorporated as a village in 1934.
- OutdoorsJean Klock Park: a beach given in a child's nameIn 1917 a Benton Harbor newspaper publisher and his wife gave the city 90 acres of Lake Michigan dunes and beach in memory of their daughter, who died in infancy — deeded to the public forever.
- History and cultureMichigan's oldest courthouse still stands in Berrien SpringsThe 1839 Greek Revival courthouse in Berrien Springs is the oldest county courthouse left standing in Michigan, built when the county seat sat here on a square that's now a history museum.
- History and cultureNew Buffalo: the town the railroad made, then walked away fromA shipwrecked captain named New Buffalo for his hometown in 1834; the Michigan Central made it the end of the line in 1849, then the tracks reached Chicago and the boom moved on.
- Rules and licensesRenting out your New Buffalo cottage? The city makes you register firstThe City of New Buffalo requires a short-term rental to be registered, inspected, and renewed each year before it can be rented; New Buffalo Township runs a separate rental license with its own rules.
- OutdoorsSarett Nature Center and the tower over the Paw PawA 1963 gift of 130 acres along the Paw Paw River grew into Sarett Nature Center, where a 55-foot treetop tower lets you stand in the canopy over the river valley.
- History and cultureSt. Joseph's two pier lights and the catwalk that kept the keeper aliveTwo lighthouses on St. Joseph's north pier — a round outer light and a square inner one — are linked to shore by an elevated catwalk built so the keeper could reach them when waves swept the pier.
- OutdoorsThe bike ride that fills Three Oaks every last Sunday in SeptemberThe Apple Cider Century, a bike tour through the orchards and back roads around Three Oaks, has run since 1974; up to several thousand riders pick routes from 15 to 100 miles each September.
- History and cultureThe company that built Buchanan, and the offices it left behindClark Equipment grew from a free-rent startup into a Fortune 100 maker of axles, forklifts, and Bobcat loaders; its 1980s exit gutted Buchanan, but the offices are now on the National Register.
- History and cultureThe fountain that came to St. Joseph from a Chicago expositionThe Maids of the Mist fountain reached St. Joseph in 1892 after serving as the centerpiece of Chicago's Interstate Industrial Exposition.
- History and cultureThe lost French fort that Niles digs up every summerFort St. Joseph, a French trading post occupied from 1691 to 1781, was lost for over a century beneath Niles until a 1998 survey relocated it; a Western Michigan University dig has worked the site each summer since.
- History and cultureThe Spanish cannon that Three Oaks bought with penniesA bronze Spanish cannon captured at Manila Bay sits in a Three Oaks park because the town's 1,400 residents out-gave every city in America, per person, for a Maine memorial.
- History and cultureThe sportswriter Hemingway admired grew up on Bond Street in NilesRing Lardner, the satirical sportswriter behind 'You Know Me Al,' was born in Niles in 1885 and raised in a Gothic Revival house with a pipe organ and a toboggan slide; a marker downtown notes his birthplace.
- History and cultureThe university in Berrien Springs that started in Battle CreekAndrews University moved to Berrien Springs in 1901 as Emmanuel Missionary College, the Seventh-day Adventist school that began as Battle Creek College in 1874 and took its current name in 1960.
- History and cultureThe Watervliet mill that made the cards in your deckFor most of the 20th century a paper mill on the Paw Paw River in Watervliet made the glossy coated stock behind Sears catalog covers, postage stamps, and millions of playing cards.
- OutdoorsWhy salmon line up below the Berrien Springs dam each fallA 1908 hydro dam at Berrien Springs blocked the St. Joseph River until a 1975 fish ladder let Lake Michigan salmon and steelhead climb past it, reopening miles of river to migrating fish.
- History and cultureHarbor Country: where Carl Sandburg wrote Lincoln among the goatsChikaming Township's lakeside villages — Lakeside, Harbert, Union Pier — have drawn Chicago artists for a century; Carl Sandburg wrote his Pulitzer-winning Lincoln here.
- History and cultureBenton Harbor and the House of DavidBenton Harbor's House of David colony became famous for bearded baseball, Eden Springs Park, and its miniature railway.
- Money and taxesBenton Harbor has a city income taxBenton Harbor is one of Michigan's local-income-tax cities, with a 1% resident rate and 0.5% nonresident work-in-city rate.
- History and cultureBenton Harbor is Whirlpool's hometownWhirlpool began in Benton Harbor in 1911 and still lists the city as its global headquarters.
- Home and propertyBenton Harbor's water and the lead-line replacementBenton Harbor's lead-in-water crisis triggered a full lead-service-line replacement program, and the city's water has since met lead standards.
- History and cultureNiles, the City of Four FlagsNiles is the City of Four Flags because Fort St. Joseph passed through French, British, Spanish, and American claims.
- History and cultureSt. Joseph's Silver BeachSt. Joseph's Silver Beach carries a century of amusement-park history, carousel nostalgia, and Lake Michigan lighthouse views.
- OutdoorsGrand Mere: three hidden lakes behind the dunesGrand Mere State Park near Stevensville hides three interdunal lakes behind Lake Michigan's dunes — a National Natural Landmark kept deliberately wild.
- History and cultureFour Winds Casino and the Pokagon BandFour Winds New Buffalo is a major resort owned and operated by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.
- OutdoorsWarren Dunes: the 240-foot sand mountains next doorWarren Dunes State Park in Lake Township stacks 240-foot dunes over three miles of Lake Michigan beach — one of Michigan's most-visited parks.
- History and cultureWhen Chicago summered on Paw Paw LakeA century ago, special trains delivered thousands of Chicagoans to Paw Paw Lake's hotels and dance pavilions; today the lake is Coloma and Watervliet's year-round backyard.
- OutdoorsThe Painted TurtleThe painted turtle became Michigan's state reptile in 1995 — chosen by a class of Niles fifth-graders, which might make it the most Michigan symbol of all.
- Home and propertyLiving near the Cook nuclear plantHomes around Bridgman and Lake Township may sit inside the Cook Nuclear Plant emergency planning zone, with B-WARN alerts, KI pills, and a Know Your Zone map.
- Home and propertyLiving near the Palisades nuclear plantHomes 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 propertyBuilding near the Lake Michigan shoreline and on the dunesLake Michigan shoreline and dune properties can be affected by Michigan critical-dune and high-risk-erosion-area permits.
- History and cultureWhy vineyards cluster along Michigan's southwest shoreThe Lake Michigan Shore wine region covers all of Berrien and Van Buren counties, where Lake Michigan moderates the climate without erasing winter risk.
- History and cultureBlueberries, peaches, and the lake that makes them possibleSouthwest 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 taxesBuying in a township? Watch for special assessments on top of your taxesMichigan township buyers should check for special assessments that can add separate road, sewer, water, lighting, sidewalk, or drain charges.
- Money and taxesIn Michigan, you get two property-tax bills a year — not oneMost Michigan property owners get separate summer and winter tax bills, with local rules deciding what lands on each bill.