County note shelf
Cheboygan County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Cheboygan County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 14 local stories.
18 notes
Read the county shelf
- History and culture Cheboygan and the Coast Guard icebreaker Mackinaw Cheboygan is home port for the USCGC Mackinaw, the Coast Guard's heavy Great Lakes icebreaker.
- Outdoors Cheboygan State Park and the Lake Huron shore Cheboygan State Park gives Benton Township a quiet Lake Huron shoreline, with beach, woods, camping, and the old Cheboygan Point Light site.
- History and culture Dousman's Mill (the old Historic Mill Creek) Dousman's Mill preserves the old Historic Mill Creek sawmill site, one of the oldest industrial places in the Great Lakes.
- Money and taxes Is there a city income tax in Cheboygan County? Cheboygan County has no local income tax: Cheboygan is the county's only city, and it does not levy one.
- History and culture The Cross in the Woods Indian River's Cross in the Woods is a national Catholic shrine built around a huge redwood cross and bronze figure of Christ.
- Outdoors Black Lake and the sturgeon season Black Lake anchors northeast Cheboygan County and hosts Michigan's only lake-sturgeon spearing season.
- Outdoors Wolverine and the Sturgeon River Wolverine and the surrounding Nunda and Wilmot township countryside sit on the fast, trout-filled Sturgeon River.
- History and culture A Fort Where History Is Literally Being Dug Up, Summer After Summer A reconstructed 1715 French fort under the Mackinac Bridge, sitting atop one of North America's longest-running archaeological digs — active every summer since 1959.
- History and culture No Car Has Ever Been Blown Off the Mackinac Bridge — Despite the Legend Despite the enduring legend, no car has ever been blown off the Mackinac Bridge — the people who run the 'Mighty Mac' are blunt about it.
- History and culture Old Mackinac Point: The Castle the Bridge Made Obsolete A castle-like lighthouse at the Straits of Mackinac that guided ships from 1892 until the Mackinac Bridge made it obsolete in 1957 — now a museum.
- History and culture What's a "Yooper"? What's a "Troll"? And Why Do People Point at Their Hand? A Yooper is from the Upper Peninsula, a Troll lives 'under the bridge' in the Lower, a Fudgie is a tourist — and yes, Michiganders really do use their hand as a map.
- History and culture Why Is the Lower Peninsula Shaped Like a Mitten — and Is the Whole State Really Two Pieces? Michigan really is two separate landmasses, joined since 1957 by the five-mile Mackinac Bridge — and the Lower Peninsula's famous mitten shape is pure luck of the glaciers.
- Outdoors Mullett Lake, Burt Lake, and the resort towns Burt Lake and Mullett Lake anchor Cheboygan County's Inland Waterway lake country, with Indian River, Topinabee, and two state parks.
- Outdoors The Dwarf Lake Iris Michigan's state wildflower is a tiny, vivid blue-violet iris that grows almost nowhere else on Earth — only along the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron.
- Home and property Wells, septic, and what to check before you buy Cheboygan County township buyers should check private wells and septic systems themselves because there is no automatic point-of-sale inspection rule.
- Outdoors The Inland Waterway Cheboygan is the Lake Huron doorway to the Inland Waterway, Michigan's longest connected chain of inland lakes and rivers.
- 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.