County note shelf
Genesee County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Genesee County. This shelf has 6 practical notes and 59 local stories.
65 notes
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- OutdoorsThe Genesee Valley Trail ties Flint Township to the cityA paved trail runs from Flint Township's park and commercial corridor toward Flint, where it links into the larger Flint River Trail system.
- OutdoorsBuell Lake Park pairs fishing with model airplanesThetford Township's 213-acre county park combines a no-wake lake, a one-mile trail, disc golf, and a dedicated field for radio-controlled model airplanes.
- History and cultureApplewood: the apple-named estate of the man who steered FlintApplewood, the 1916 Flint home and gentleman's farm of GM leader Charles Stewart Mott, keeps an orchard of 29 heirloom apple varieties and opens its gardens to the public.
- History and cultureBerston Field House: the Flint gym that made an Olympic championBerston Field House on Flint's north end opened in 1923, became the city's first recreation center to admit Black residents, and trained two-time Olympic gold medalist boxer Claressa Shields.
- History and cultureFlint's Capitol Theatre puts a fake Italian sky over your headThe 1928 Capitol Theatre on Flint's Second Street is an atmospheric movie palace — designed to feel like a starlit Italian garden — that sat dark 20 years before a $37 million restoration reopened it in 2017.
- OutdoorsA 1938 WPA footbridge still hangs over the Flint River at Richfield ParkRichfield County Park started Genesee County's park system in 1935, and its Depression-era suspension footbridge — hung from fieldstone towers over the Flint River — still carries walkers today.
- OutdoorsA Flushing subdivision that never got built is now 130 acres of riverfront trailsFlushing Township Nature Park — roughly 130 acres of boardwalk, trails, and an observation deck on the Flint River — was platted for houses until a township supervisor suggested making it a park in 1992.
- History and cultureBefore it was Montrose, the township was named PewonigowinkMontrose Township first organized in 1847 as Pewonigowink, named for a Saginaw Chippewa reservation along the Flint River — and held that name for less than a year.
- History and cultureBuick City: from Flint auto complex to new industrial parkNearly 28,000 people worked across the Buick City site in the 1980s. Assembly ended in 1999; cleanup continues, while the first Flint Commerce Center building now occupies part of the old campus.
- History and cultureBurton became a city in 1972 to keep Flint from swallowing itBurton, Genesee County's second-largest city, grew from the 1830s Atherton farming settlement on Thread Creek and incorporated as a city in 1972 — largely to stop Flint from annexing its land.
- History and cultureClio's city park has hosted summer concerts since 1987The Clio Area Amphitheater, an outdoor venue in Clio's city park, has run a summer season of music and theater since 1987 — including the long-running Clio Cast and Crew productions that began in 1989.
- OutdoorsDavison Township's swimming lake started with one man's fundraisingLake Callis Recreation Complex in Davison Township — 40 acres with an 18-acre swimming lake, beach, and splash pad — is named for Bob Callis, who raised the money to buy the land.
- History and cultureFenton won its name in a card gameThe Genesee County town first called Dibbleville got its name from an 1837 card game: William Fenton won the town, and Robert LeRoy got the main street.
- History and cultureFenton's community center was designed by the architect of CranbrookThe 1938 Fenton Community Center was designed by Eliel Saarinen — the same architect behind Cranbrook — and paid for by an auto-fortune gift, a piece of real modernist pedigree in a small town.
- History and cultureFlint sells produce in a building that once printed the newspaperThe Flint Farmers' Market — open in some form since 1905 — moved in 2014 into the old Flint Journal printing plant on East First Street, two blocks from where it stood a century ago.
- History and cultureFlint was 'Vehicle City' before it ever built a carFlint earned its 'Vehicle City' nickname in the 1890s for horse-drawn carriages, not automobiles; lit arches once spanned Saginaw Street, and modern replicas stand downtown today.
- Cars and drivingFlint's airport sits on a banker's donated farmBishop International Airport began in 1928 when banker Arthur Giles Bishop gave 220 acres of Genesee County farmland to Flint for flying; it now carries the airline traffic for mid-Michigan.
- OutdoorsFlushing's Riverview Trail, with a 200-foot bridge over the Flint RiverA 1.4-mile paved path through Flushing's wetlands crosses the Flint River on a 200-foot span and Cole Creek on a 72-foot one, turning the riverbank into an easy walk-and-fish route.
- History and cultureGaines keeps its books in an 1884 train depotThe Gaines Station branch of the Genesee District Library is the system's smallest, set in an 1884 yellow-brick railroad depot with the original walnut ticket windows still in place.
- Money and taxesGenesee County pays a small tax that keeps the art museum free-ishIn August 2018 Genesee County voters approved a countywide arts and culture millage that funds the Flint Cultural Center's institutions and grants to other arts groups — a property tax most Michigan counties don't levy.
- History and cultureGoodrich grew up around a creek somebody dammed in 1846The Goodrich Mill Pond in Atlas Township is dammed-up Kearsley Creek, backed up by an 1846 grist mill that became the village's center for fishing, boating, and winter skating.
- History and cultureGrand Blanc built more than 18,000 tanks for World War IIThe Fisher Body plant in Grand Blanc turned out Sherman tanks, Pershings, and tank destroyers from 1942 to 1945 — and the same site still stamps steel for GM today.
- History and cultureGrand Blanc Township was once eight other townships, tooOrganized in 1833, Grand Blanc Township was Genesee County's first unit of government, and its original boundaries covered the ground that later split off into Flint, Burton, Davison, Fenton, and several other townships.
- History and cultureKettering University, the Flint school General Motors used to ownThe engineering school on Flint's University Avenue spent 56 years owned outright by General Motors as GMI, training the company's engineers through a work-and-study co-op that still defines the place.
- History and cultureMichigan's biggest planetarium has hidden under a Flint dome since 1958The Robert T. Longway Planetarium in Flint opened in 1958 under a geodesic-style dome 88 feet across and is still the largest planetarium in Michigan.
- History and cultureMundy Township is named for Michigan's first lieutenant governorWhen Mundy Township organized in 1837, it took the name of Edward Mundy — the lawyer who served as Michigan's first lieutenant governor as the territory became a state.
- History and cultureOtisville grew around an 1851 sawmillAn 1851 sawmill started Otisville's lumber-era growth. Francis Otis and his brothers bought the operation the next year, and the village took Francis's name.
- History and culturePine Run was the settlement the railroad left behindPine Run was Vienna Township's early center. After a proposed railroad line did not go through, growth shifted north to the settlement that became Clio.
- History and cultureSwartz Creek began as Miller SettlementGerman pioneer Adam Miller founded Miller Settlement. An 1842 post office took the nearby creek's name, and the community became Swartz Creek.
- History and cultureThe Flint concert hall named for the man who brought Buick to townThe 2,043-seat Whiting Auditorium on Flint's Cultural Center campus, opened in 1967, is named for James H. Whiting — the wagon-maker who talked his partners into buying Buick and moving it to Flint.
- History and cultureThe Genesee County Fair has run near Mount Morris since the mid-1800sGenesee County has held a fair since the mid-1800s, now staged on the 690-acre Cummings Center along the Flint River at Mount Morris — demolition derbies, livestock barns, and all.
- History and cultureThe Michigan School for the Deaf, on the same Flint ground since 1854A state school for deaf children has stood on Flint's near west side since 1854, making it one of Michigan's oldest public institutions still doing the work it was built for.
- OutdoorsThe Mounds: 370 acres built for getting stuck on purposeThe Mounds ORV Park near Mount Morris has been turning Jeeps, trucks, and quads loose across hills, rocks, sand, and mud since 1971 — a county-run off-road playground.
- History and cultureThe Whaley House, where a $2,000 loan helped start General MotorsA banker in this Victorian house on Flint's Kearsley Street lent Billy Durant the seed money that grew into General Motors; the home is now a museum on the same street.
- History and cultureTiger Woods won here: Warwick Hills and the Buick OpenWarwick Hills in Grand Blanc Township hosted Michigan's only regular PGA Tour stop, the Buick Open, for decades — and the tour came back for a Champions event in 2018.
- OutdoorsYou can paddle the Shiawassee River right through downtown LindenThe Shiawassee River Heritage Water Trail runs for miles across mid-Michigan, and one of its mellow, warm-water stretches slips right past the old mill in downtown Linden.
- History and cultureAtwood Stadium: Flint's 1920s arena, saved by an engineering schoolAtwood Stadium, an 11,000-seat venue in Flint's Carriage Town, opened in the 1920s and is now owned by Kettering University, hosting soccer, high school sports, and concerts.
- History and cultureClio was named for the Greek muse of history — by the women at a hotel partyClio, north of Flint, started as 'Varney' and was renamed for Clio, the Greek muse of history, after a hotel-keeper's appeal won over the women at an 1860s party.
- History and cultureDavison is named for a judge who actually lived next door, in AtlasDavison takes its name from pioneer and judge Norman Davison; the town grew as a railroad station in the 1870s and incorporated as a city in 1938.
- History and cultureFenton's museum lives in a 1900 sash-factory office that became the town libraryThe A.J. Phillips Fenton Museum fills a 1900 building once used as a manufacturer's office and later the town library, with genealogy and county cemetery records.
- History and cultureFlint built a planetarium, an art museum, and a library on one lawnA single Flint campus holds a science-and-history museum, a planetarium, an art institute, a theater, and the public library — built largely with auto-fortune giving.
- History and cultureFlushing's 1888 depot survived a fire and became the town museumAfter passenger service ended and a 1980 fire gutted Flushing's 1888 depot, the local historical society restored it and opened a museum.
- OutdoorsFor-Mar: a donated dairy farm that became Burton's 383-acre preserveFor-Mar Nature Preserve in Burton — named for donors Forbes and Martha Merkley — protects 383 acres of woods, meadows, and trails on a former dairy farm.
- History and cultureGrand Blanc means 'great white' in French — and nobody's sure who that wasGrand Blanc's name is French for 'great white,' given by traders who passed through before 1800, long before the town itself was settled and organized.
- History and cultureLinden's pre-Civil-War mill on the Shiawassee now lends booksThe historic Linden Mills building sits on the Shiawassee River in Linden and houses the public library and local history collection; its downtown is a registered historic district.
- History and cultureMontrose has thrown a Blueberry Festival every August since 1972Since 1972, the small city of Montrose has held an August Blueberry Festival — a volunteer-run weekend of a parade, pancake breakfast, carnival, and contests.
- OutdoorsStepping Stone Falls: the built waterfall that holds back Mott LakeA built dam-and-spillway on the Flint River backs up Mott Lake and steps the water down in tiers, lit with colored lights on summer nights northeast of Flint.
- History and cultureArgentine: the Genesee village named for silverArgentine, in southwest Genesee County, took a silver-tinged name in 1842 after starting life as 'Booton'; its mill outlived the village, and Lobdell Lake is dammed-up North Ore Creek.
- OutdoorsBluebell Beach: a county lake beach with the area's first splash padBluebell Beach on Mott Lake, run by Genesee County Parks northeast of Flint, has a sand swimming beach, the area's first splash pad, and a connection to the Flint River Trail.
- History and cultureThe filmmaker who chased GM's CEO grew up in DavisonMichael Moore grew up in Davison, won a Michigan school board seat at 18, and turned his hometown's auto-plant collapse into the 1989 documentary 'Roger & Me.'
- History and cultureCrossroads Village & the Huckleberry Railroad: Step Back to the 1800sA living-history village of 34 historic buildings and a coal-fired steam train along Mott Lake — Genesee County's beloved trip back to the turn of the century, open since 1976.
- History and cultureThe Flint Sit-Down Strike: 44 Days That Built the UAWFor 44 days in the winter of 1936-37, Flint autoworkers occupied GM's Fisher Body plants before a settlement recognized the UAW as their bargaining representative.
- History and cultureThe Little Brick Office Where General Motors Was BornA plain brick office on Flint's Water Street was the headquarters of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company — and is credited as the 1908 birthplace of General Motors. It's a National Historic Landmark.
- Home and propertyBuying in Flint? An honest, up-to-date look at the waterFlint's water crisis caused lasting harm, but the city's water meets standards today; buyers should still check service-line history and current reports.
- History and cultureFlint built the car — and helped build the American labor movementFlint is the birthplace of General Motors and the city where the 1936-37 Sit-Down Strike helped transform American labor.
- Money and taxesFlint has a city income tax (and it's moving to state processing)Flint charges a 1% resident and 0.5% nonresident city income tax, with state processing scheduled for the 2026 tax year.
- Home and propertyFlint's land bank: cheap lots and fixer-uppers, with a catchThe Genesee County Land Bank sells Flint side lots and fixer-upper houses cheaply, but buyers need to budget for real rehab work.
- History and cultureFlint's Grand Funk Railroad Sold Out Shea Stadium Faster Than the BeatlesGrand Funk Railroad, a hard-rock trio from Flint, sold out Shea Stadium in 72 hours in 1971 — faster than the Beatles had.
- History and cultureKoegel's Viennas: The Snap Heard 'Round the MittenThe natural-casing snap that a century of Michiganders grew up grilling — Flint's Koegel Vienna, made the same way since 1916.
- History and cultureWhat Exactly Is a "Coney Dog" — and Why Do Flint and Detroit Argue About It?A coney is a hot dog under a meaty, beanless sauce — and Detroit (wet and smooth) and Flint (dry and crumbly) have argued about how to make that sauce for a century.