County note shelf
Emmet County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Emmet County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 13 local stories.
17 notes
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- Outdoors Nub's Nob and The Highlands Pleasantview Township is Emmet County's ski-and-golf pocket, with Nub's Nob and The Highlands north of Harbor Springs.
- History and culture How Northern Michigan Made Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway spent his boyhood summers at the family's Windemere cottage on Walloon Lake, and northern Michigan shaped his early fiction.
- History and culture Harbor Springs Harbor Springs is Emmet County's premium north-shore resort town, with a deep harbor, old summer colonies, and the Tunnel of Trees.
- Money and taxes No city income tax in Emmet County Petoskey and Harbor Springs do not levy a local city income tax.
- History and culture Petoskey Petoskey is Emmet County's year-round resort hub, with the Gaslight District, Bay View, the Bear River, and Little Traverse Bay services.
- 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.
- Outdoors That Pretty Beach Rock Is a 350-Million-Year-Old Coral Michigan's state stone is a fossil — a 350-million-year-old coral reef you can pick up on a Lake Michigan beach, as long as you take less than 25 pounds.
- History and culture Mackinaw City, the Straits, and Wilderness Wawatam, Carp Lake, and Bliss townships anchor Emmet County's Straits end, from Mackinaw City and the bridge to Wilderness State Park.
- Outdoors The Tunnel of Trees: Good Hart and Cross Village Friendship, Readmond, and Cross Village townships follow the Tunnel of Trees along Emmet County's quiet Lake Michigan bluff country.
- Outdoors Little Traverse Bay and Petoskey stones Little Traverse Bay anchors Petoskey and Harbor Springs, with premium shoreline and classic Petoskey-stone hunting.
- Outdoors Inland Emmet: Alanson, Pellston, and the Inland Waterway Littlefield, Maple River, McKinley, Center, and Springvale townships are Emmet County's quieter inland side, with Alanson, Pellston, and the Inland Waterway.
- 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 Well and septic in Emmet County Emmet County township buyers should expect wells and septic systems, with buyer-beware septic checks outside municipal utilities.
- 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.