County note shelf
Calhoun County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Calhoun County. This shelf has 5 practical notes and 20 local stories.
25 notes
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- History and culture A cigar maker's café that outlived everything Schuler's in Marshall began as a cigar maker's café, grew into a statewide restaurant chain under Win Schuler, and the original flagship still serves on Eagle Street.
- History and culture A dozen free turkeys became Turkeyville Cornwell's Turkeyville near Marshall grew from a neighbor's gift of 12 turkeys in the 1940s into a turkey-dinner empire with a dinner theatre and ice cream parlor.
- History and culture A son's gift glowing in the middle of Marshall Marshall's Brooks Memorial Fountain, modeled on Versailles and lit by General Electric, was a mayor's 1930 gift to his town in memory of his father.
- History and culture Albion was a foundry town at the forks Albion grew at the forks of the Kalamazoo River and ran on the Albion Malleable Iron Company from 1888 to 1967; the town still throws a Festival of the Forks every fall.
- Outdoors Feeding a giraffe by hand south of Battle Creek Binder Park Zoo's Wild Africa lets you hand-feed romaine to a herd of giraffes from a raised boardwalk, on 433 wooded acres outside Battle Creek.
- History and culture Homer grew up around a sawmill on the Kalamazoo Homer was settled in 1832 by families who walked from Pennsylvania, grew around Milton Barney's sawmill and store, and incorporated as a village in 1871.
- History and culture The chief buried under the village's name Tekonsha carries the name of a Potawatomi leader whose remains are buried in the village, on land settled in the early 1830s where the St. Joseph River bends.
- History and culture The old San is now a federal fortress Battle Creek's Italian Renaissance health spa — Dr. Kellogg's famous Sanitarium — became an Army hospital, then a federal center named for three wounded senators.
- History and culture The Quaker store that ran the Underground Railroad Erastus and Sarah Hussey helped more than 1,000 freedom seekers through Battle Creek; a bronze monument downtown now honors them alongside Harriet Tubman.
- History and culture Albion College and the forks of the Kalamazoo Albion grew up at the forks of the Kalamazoo River and around one of Michigan's oldest liberal arts colleges.
- History and culture Battle Creek, the Cereal City Battle Creek earned its Cereal City nickname as the birthplace of breakfast cereal and the home of Kellogg's and Post.
- History and culture FireKeepers and the Nottawaseppi Huron Band FireKeepers Casino Hotel in Emmett Township is owned by the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi, whose home is the Pine Creek Indian Reservation.
- History and culture Historic Marshall Marshall's National Historic Landmark district, near-capital story, Honolulu House, and magic museum make it one of Michigan's great historic towns.
- History and culture Sojourner Truth made Battle Creek her home Sojourner Truth spent the last chapter of her life in Battle Creek, where a monument and Oak Hill Cemetery honor her legacy.
- History and culture The Calhoun County Fair Marshall hosts Michigan's oldest continuously running fair, with roots in 1839 and historic fairgrounds shaded by old oaks.
- History and culture A Homesick Judge Built a Hawaiian Mansion in Small-Town Michigan A homesick former judge who'd served as U.S. Consul to Hawaii built the tropical Honolulu House in Marshall, Michigan, in 1860.
- History and culture Corn Flakes Were Invented at a Michigan Health Spa Run by an Eccentric Doctor Corn flakes were born at a quirky Battle Creek health spa run by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg — and helped turn the city into 'Cereal City.'
- History and culture How One Michigan Town Became the Cereal Capital of the World How a feud — the Kellogg brothers' split and C.W. Post's rival empire — turned Battle Creek into the self-proclaimed 'Cereal City.'
- Money and taxes Three Calhoun cities have a local income tax Battle Creek, Albion, and Springfield each levy a local income tax on residents and nonresidents who work in the city.
- Home and property Buying on (or near) a Calhoun County lake? Calhoun County lake homes can come with legal lake levels, lake special assessments, lake associations, and lake-specific boating rules.
- History and culture Why Does Michigan Have So Many Places Named After Foreign Places? Michigan's map is full of foreign and classical town names — Paris, Moscow, Athens, Rome — left over from an 1800s naming boom, and locals pronounce most of them their own way.
- Home and property Outside town, you're probably on a well and septic Most rural Calhoun County township homes use private wells and septic systems, and sale-time inspections are something buyers need to ask for.
- History and culture Cereal bowls and time capsules: Calhoun County's two famous towns Calhoun County gave America its breakfast — the Kellogg story began in Battle Creek — and preserves one of the country's finest 19th-century towns in Marshall.
- 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.