County note shelf
Dickinson County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Dickinson County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 8 local stories.
12 notes
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- History and cultureHow Dickinson County got its nameOrganized on May 21, 1891, Dickinson is Michigan's youngest county. Its name honors Donald M. Dickinson, a Detroit attorney who had served as U.S. Postmaster General.
- History and cultureHow Norway, Michigan got its nameNorway grew up on the Menominee Iron Range in the 1870s -- and its name has two tellings, one about Norwegian settlers and one about a great stand of Norway pine.
- Money and taxesIs there a city income tax in Iron Mountain?Iron Mountain charges no city income tax -- neither do Kingsford or Norway, and neither does anywhere else in the Upper Peninsula. The nearest one is Grayling, well over a hundred miles away.
- History and cultureKingsford: the town Ford built, the charcoal on your grillKingsford had about forty residents in 1920. Then Henry Ford built a wood empire here -- and the briquettes his plant pressed from sawmill waste became the Kingsford charcoal on grills across America.
- OutdoorsPiers Gorge, the U.P.'s wildest waterSouth of Norway, the Menominee River squeezes through Piers Gorge in a run of roaring rapids -- some of the fastest water in Michigan or Wisconsin, and a genuine whitewater-rafting destination.
- OutdoorsPine Mountain has sent ski jumpers flying since 1939Construction began in 1937, the first competition came in 1939, and Pine Mountain now hosts FIS Continental Cup meets. FIS reported Clemens Aigner's 144-meter jump as a new hill record in 2020.
- History and cultureThe Cornish Pump, Iron Mountain's gentle giantThe Chapin Mine ran beneath wet ground, so Iron Mountain answered with what remains the largest standing steam-driven pumping engine built in the United States -- all 725 tons of it.
- History and cultureYour Backyard Grill Was Invented by Henry Ford (Out of Sawdust)The charcoal briquette became a household product thanks to Henry Ford, who turned U.P. sawmill scrap into Kingsford Charcoal.
- History and cultureWhy Do Some Parts of the U.P. Have a Different Time Than the Rest of Michigan?Most of Michigan runs on Eastern Time, but four counties in the western U.P. that border Wisconsin — Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, and Menominee — sit on Central Time.
- Home and propertyWhat to know about well and septic in Dickinson CountyOutside Iron Mountain, Kingsford, and Norway, most of Dickinson County is on private well and septic. Michigan has no statewide septic code, and the local health department doesn't require an inspection when a property is sold -- though it offers evaluations some home loans require.
- 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.