County note shelf
Chippewa County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Chippewa County. This shelf has 5 practical notes and 15 local stories.
20 notes
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- History and culture How Chippewa County got its name Chippewa County is named for the Chippewa -- also known as the Ojibwe or Anishinaabe -- the Native people whose homeland this has been for centuries and who remain a strong presence in the county today.
- Money and taxes Is there a city income tax in Sault Ste. Marie? Sault Ste. Marie -- the only city in Chippewa County -- does not charge a city income tax, and neither does anywhere else in the Upper Peninsula. The nearest one is Grayling, well over a hundred miles away.
- Outdoors Tahquamenon Falls, the 'Root Beer Falls' (Paradise / Chippewa side) Most of Tahquamenon Falls State Park lies in Chippewa County, where the amber-colored Tahquamenon River pours over the Upper Falls -- one of the biggest waterfalls east of the Mississippi -- on its way to Lake Superior.
- History and culture The Sault Tribe and Bay Mills: sovereign nations of the eastern U.P. Two federally recognized Ojibwe tribes are based in Chippewa County -- the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the largest tribe in Michigan, and the Bay Mills Indian Community near Brimley. Both are sovereign governments with their own land, institutions, and treaty rights.
- History and culture Whitefish Point and the Edmund Fitzgerald At the tip of Whitefish Point stands Lake Superior's oldest lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, which remembers the hundreds of ships lost on this 'Shipwreck Coast' -- among them the Edmund Fitzgerald, which went down with all 29 hands in 1975.
- Outdoors Michigan Has a Waterfall the Color of Root Beer Deep in the Upper Peninsula, the Tahquamenon River plunges over a 50-foot ledge in a froth of root-beer-colored foam — colored by tannins, not anything unclean.
- History and culture Michigan's Oldest City Is Older Than the United States Sault Ste. Marie, founded by Father Marquette in 1668, is Michigan's oldest city — 108 years older than the United States.
- History and culture The Busiest Lock You've Never Heard Of Nearly all of America's domestic iron ore floats through one set of Michigan locks — and ships pay nothing to use them.
- History and culture The Ghost Ship That Sailed Through a Crack in the Lake The SS Bannockburn vanished on Lake Superior in 1902, leaving only an oar and a life preserver — and a ghost-ship legend as the "Flying Dutchman of the Great Lakes."
- History and culture The Lighthouse at the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" Lake Superior's oldest working lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, home to the Edmund Fitzgerald's bell, at the 'Graveyard of the Great Lakes.'
- Outdoors Crisp Point: The Light That Was Nearly Lost to the Lake A lonely tower on Lake Superior's Shipwreck Coast that nearly slid into the lake — saved by stubborn volunteers and relit in 2013.
- Outdoors Drummond Island: The Last British Holdout The second-largest freshwater island in the U.S., a last British holdout until 1828, and home to one of the world's rare alvar grasslands.
- History and culture Mishipeshu, the Great Lynx Beneath the Waves Mishipeshu, the Great Lynx of Anishinaabe tradition, is the underwater panther said to guard the copper of Lake Superior — the oldest "something in the water" story the Great Lakes have.
- History and culture The Shipwreck That Became a Song — and a Bell That Still Rings The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a Lake Superior storm in 1975, just 17 miles from safety. All 29 men aboard were lost — and the ship's recovered bell still rings for them every November.
- History and culture Manoomin — Wild Rice Michigan's newest symbol is one of its oldest foods: in 2023 it became the first state to name an official native grain — manoomin, the wild rice at the heart of Anishinaabe history.
- Home and property What to know about well and septic in Chippewa County Outside Sault Ste. Marie, most of Chippewa County is on private well and septic. Michigan has no statewide septic code, and the county doesn't force an inspection just because a property is sold -- so it's on the buyer to check the system before closing.
- History and culture Sault Ste. Marie and the Soo Locks Michigan's oldest city sits where Lake Superior pours down into Lake Huron. The Soo Locks let ships make that 21-foot drop -- and carry more cargo than any other lock system on earth, including the iron ore from the rest of the U.P.
- Money and taxes Live in a Michigan village? You pay an extra layer of property tax Michigan village residents usually pay village property taxes on top of township taxes, so the village boundary can change a buyer's total rate.
- 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.