County note shelf
Clare County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Clare County. This shelf has 6 practical notes and 13 local stories.
19 notes
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- History and culture The Doherty Hotel and the night the oil money came due Clare's Doherty Hotel, open since 1924, was a Prohibition-era haunt of the Detroit Purple Gang — and the spot where an oil baron was shot dead at the bar in 1938.
- History and culture Spikehorn and the bear den at the Harrison crossroads For nearly three decades, John 'Spikehorn' Meyer ran a roadside bear den at the Harrison crossroads where, a sign promised, visitors could shake hands with a bear.
- History and culture The little railroad at Lake George that changed how Michigan logged In 1877 Winfield Scott Gerrish built a six-mile logging railroad from Lake George to the Muskegon River — the line that proved trains could haul logs and set off a boom of Michigan logging railroads.
- Outdoors The stone beach house the CCC built on Budd Lake Wilson State Park sits on 36 wooded acres at the north end of Budd Lake in Harrison, on the old Wilson Brothers sawmill site, with a stone-and-wood beach house built by Depression-era CCC crews.
- History and culture When oil came up under Clare and the mob came with it In the early 1930s Clare sat at the edge of a central-Michigan oil boom, and the mob-backed Mammoth Producing & Refining Company grew into one of the biggest independent oil producers east of the Mississippi.
- Outdoors Snow Snake: a ski hill and a golf course on the same Harrison ground Snow Snake Ski & Golf in Harrison runs a 210-foot ski hill with a dozen trails and two terrain parks in winter, then turns the same rolling, wooded ground into an 18-hole golf course.
- Outdoors The Tobacco River: little trout creeks named for old characters The Tobacco River rises in southeastern Clare County out of swampy headwater creeks — Beaver, Jose, Spikehorn, Mostellar — that hold wild brook and brown trout within easy reach of mid-Michigan anglers.
- History and culture Clare's Irish Festival and "City of Festivals" Clare leans into its Irish name and festival-town identity with the annual Clare Irish Festival.
- History and culture Cops & Doughnuts: the bakery the police bought Clare's police-owned Cops & Doughnuts bakery helped bring national attention and visitors back to downtown.
- History and culture Amish country east of Clare The countryside east and southeast of Clare is home to a longstanding Amish settlement around Colonville.
- Home and property No city income tax in Clare County Neither Clare nor Harrison levies a city income tax, and neither do Mt. Pleasant or Midland; the nearest paycheck tax is Saginaw's 0.75% nonresident rate.
- History and culture What Does "Up North" Actually Mean in Michigan? 'Up North' isn't a direction in Michigan — it's a place and a feeling: cabins, lakes, and pine forests somewhere past the middle of the mitten, with a border no one can quite agree on.
- Home and property Lake country: "Twenty lakes in twenty minutes" Clare County lakefront buyers should ask about lake boards, special assessments, lake rules, and septic systems near the water.
- Outdoors The Pere Marquette Rail Trail Downtown Clare and Farwell connect to the Pere Marquette rail-trail system for biking, walking, running, and skiing.
- Home and property Out in the township, you're on a well and septic Clare County township homes commonly use private wells and septic systems, and resale inspection is buyer-beware.
- History and culture Clare: the town the cops saved with doughnuts When Clare's 1896 bakery was about to go dark in 2009, all nine city police officers bought it — and Cops & Doughnuts became a Michigan favorite and the gateway-to-the-north's essential stop.
- 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.