County note shelf
Ingham County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Ingham County. This shelf has 6 practical notes and 31 local stories.
37 notes
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- Money and taxes East Lansing's Income Tax Is Michigan's Newest, and a College Town Talked Itself Into It East Lansing's income tax, live since 2019, is Michigan's most recently adopted, a college town's swap of higher property taxes for a broader levy on paychecks.
- History and culture Beaumont Tower stands where the first ag classroom in America once did The carillon tower at the heart of MSU marks the spot of College Hall, the first building in the country built to teach scientific farming — and the lawn around it has its own legend.
- Outdoors Potter Park Zoo started with a couple of elk somebody gave the city The zoo that calls itself Michigan's first grew out of a small herd of native animals kept in a Lansing park along the Red Cedar River, and it's still run by the county a century later.
- History and culture There was a roller coaster on Lake Lansing for forty years The county beach at Lake Lansing in Haslett was once a full amusement park with a coaster and a dance hall — and the old carousel building still stands as a reminder.
- History and culture You can see the Mason courthouse dome from the farm fields Ingham County's 1904 courthouse in Mason is a Beaux Arts landmark with a tall clock tower that stands above the surrounding farmland, restored over fifteen years by the county.
- History and culture A whole pioneer village sits in the shadow of the Meridian Mall Meridian Historical Village in Okemos gathers seven 1800s buildings — schoolhouse, farmhouse, chapel, and a rare plank-road tollhouse — moved to one park behind the mall.
- Outdoors Fenner Nature Center is 134 acres of wild glacier ridge inside the city A 134-acre nature preserve on Lansing's east side, built around a glacial esker and maple groves, that a landowner sold to the city in the 1950s on the condition it stay wild.
- Outdoors Hawk Island was a gravel pit before it was a snow-tubing hill A 100-acre Ingham County park inside Lansing, built on the old Sablain gravel pit, with a swimming lake, a splash pad, and a winter snow-tubing run.
- History and culture Holt is named for a man who never set foot in it Holt, in Delhi Township, started as Delhi Center but renamed its post office in 1860 after Joseph Holt — a U.S. postmaster general who went on to prosecute the Lincoln assassination plot.
- History and culture Stockbridge built a town hall with a stage in it, and it's still standing The 1892 town hall on Stockbridge's village square doubled as a theater and meeting hall, and the gazebo out front copies a bandstand that once sheltered the town pump.
- Outdoors The Brenke Fish Ladder is a working sculpture you can stand inside On the Grand River in Lansing's Old Town, a set of curving concrete steps lets fish climb past a dam — and counts as public art at the same time.
- History and culture The Lansing Lugnuts named themselves after a car part, on purpose Lansing's minor-league ballpark opened in 1996 as Oldsmobile Park, and the team that plays there picked the name Lugnuts as a nod to the city's car-building history.
- History and culture The mansion in Lansing's Old Town wears a 1903 face over an 1850s house The Turner-Dodge House began as an 1850s home for one of Lansing's founding families, then got a grand Classical Revival makeover that hid the original almost completely.
- Outdoors The oval pool above ground in Moores Park is the oldest of its kind Lansing's 1923 Moores Park Pool is the oldest surviving pool of the oval, above-ground design invented by city engineer Wesley Bintz — a shape later copied across the country.
- Outdoors There's a 4,800-acre patch of public hunting land around Dansville The Dansville State Game Area, southeast of Lansing near the village of Dansville, is a roughly 4,800-acre block of state land open for deer, turkey, small game, and waterfowl.
- Outdoors Williamston has the only real whitewater for miles, where a mill dam used to be Williamston grew up around a mill dam on the Red Cedar River in the 1840s; the dam is gone, and its old site at McCormick Park is now a rare stretch of mid-Michigan rapids.
- History and culture Williamston still has a one-screen movie house on its main drag The Sun Theatre opened on Williamston's downtown street in 1947, sat abandoned for years, and was rescued by a couple who reopened it as a single-screen cinema in 1980.
- Outdoors Woldumar Nature Center grew out of the estate R.E. Olds built for his daughter The 180-plus-acre nature preserve on Lansing's western edge began as a riverside estate auto pioneer Ransom Olds built for his daughter, who later gave the land for a nature camp.
- History and culture Leslie is named for a family nobody in town ever met The town of Leslie, organized in the 1830s, took its name from a respected New York family a visiting legislator admired — not from anyone who actually settled there.
- History and culture Why Mason, not Lansing, is the county seat Mason remains Ingham County's county seat, making Michigan unusual because Lansing is a state capital that is not a county seat.
- History and culture Why Doesn't Michigan Have the Death Penalty? Michigan was the first English-speaking government in the world to abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes, back in 1846 — and it's the only U.S. state with a constitutional ban.
- Money and taxes How Michigan State University shapes East Lansing — including your taxes Michigan State University defines East Lansing's economy, housing market, taxable land base, and city-income-tax story.
- Rules and licenses Renting out a house in East Lansing? The rules are strict East Lansing tightly licenses rentals, limits unrelated roommates in single-family neighborhoods, and uses rental overlay districts.
- History and culture Why Does the Upper Peninsula Belong to Michigan and Not Wisconsin? The Upper Peninsula is attached to Wisconsin, not the rest of Michigan — Michigan got it as a consolation prize for losing the Toledo War to Ohio, and the copper and iron beneath it made the deal a steal.
- History and culture Living next to MSU: a botanical garden, a Zaha Hadid, and the Dairy Store East Lansing and Meridian Township share a backyard with MSU's campus treasures — the nation's oldest university botanical garden, the Broad Art Museum, and legendary ice cream.
- History and culture Lansing, birthplace of Oldsmobile and REO Ransom E. Olds made Lansing an auto town, from Oldsmobile and REO to today's R.E. Olds Transportation Museum.
- History and culture The Michigan State Capitol: a domed landmark you can tour for free Michigan's 1879 State Capitol is a free-to-tour National Historic Landmark and the working center of state government.
- History and culture Michigan's Capitol Looks Like Marble and Walnut — but a Lot of It Is Paint Much of the marble and walnut in Michigan's 1879 State Capitol is actually paint — over nine acres of hand-painted surfaces designed to fool the eye.
- Cars and driving That '80s Rock Band? Named After a Michigan Truck The band REO Speedwagon took its name from a Lansing-built delivery truck — named, in turn, for auto pioneer Ransom Eli Olds.
- Cars and driving The 'Michigan Left' — Why You Turn Right to Go Left Michigan's oddest turn makes you drive past your street and U-turn back — and it cuts crashes by 30 to 60 percent.
- History and culture The Olive Burger: Michigan's Love-It-or-Hate-It Sandwich Chopped green olives and a tangy mayo sauce on a burger — mid-Michigan's love-it-or-hate-it specialty, born in the old Kewpee chain.
- Money and taxes Lansing and East Lansing both have a city income tax Lansing and East Lansing both charge a local income tax, with 1% resident and 0.5% nonresident rates under Michigan's city-income-tax system.
- History and culture Magic Johnson: From Lansing to History From Everett High to a 1979 national title at Michigan State, the kid from Lansing helped change basketball forever.
- History and culture The Mastodon Before robins or white pines, Michigan belonged to the giants — and the mastodon, the state fossil, still turns up in farm fields where it browsed 10,000 years ago.
- History and culture The capital they built in the woods: Ingham's great gamble In 1847 Michigan moved its capital to a township wilderness in Ingham County — a decision mocked statewide that built Lansing and made the county the seat of state power.
- 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.