County note shelf
Gogebic County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Gogebic County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 9 local stories.
13 notes
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- OutdoorsCopper Peak, where skiers flyJust north of Ironwood stands Copper Peak -- the only ski-flying hill in the Western Hemisphere and the tallest artificial ski jump on Earth, now being rebuilt to host the world's best again.
- History and cultureHow Gogebic County got its nameGogebic County takes its name from Lake Gogebic -- an Ojibwe name, Agogebic, whose exact meaning has been debated for over a century. This was Lake Superior Chippewa country long before it was a county.
- History and cultureIronwood, the Gogebic Range, and Big Snow CountryIronwood was born from some of the richest iron ore in Michigan and named for the miner whose ore-stained hands gave the town its name -- and when the mines closed, the deep snow gave it a second life.
- Money and taxesIs there a city income tax in Ironwood or Bessemer?Michigan Treasury's current list of 24 income-tax cities includes none in Gogebic County or anywhere else in the Upper Peninsula.
- OutdoorsLake Gogebic, the U.P.'s biggest inland lakeLake Gogebic is the largest inland lake in the Upper Peninsula -- a fifteen-mile fishing paradise so big it sits in two counties and two time zones at once, ringed by the Ottawa National Forest.
- History and cultureThe Ghost Light That Has Glowed in the U.P. Woods for 60 YearsThe Paulding Light has drawn ghost-hunters to a U.P. forest road since 1966 — and a 2010 Michigan Tech study traced it to distant headlights bent by a temperature inversion.
- History and cultureWhy Michigan's Wisconsin border follows the east fork of the Montreal RiverMichigan and Wisconsin described part of their border differently. In 1926, the Supreme Court kept the Montreal River line Wisconsin had administered for decades.
- OutdoorsThe Black River WaterfallsThe Black River near Bessemer gives you five waterfalls in a row — Great Conglomerate, Potawatomi, Gorge, Sandstone, and Rainbow — strung along one of the great waterfall walks in the Midwest.
- History and cultureThe Hand-Pie With a Crust You Weren't Supposed to EatThe U.P.'s beloved pasty came over with Cornish miners — and the famous story about its thick crust being a disposable handle is half legend.
- 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 Gogebic CountyOutside the cities, most of Gogebic 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 one that some home loans and buyers ask for.
- 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.