County note shelf
Isabella County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Isabella County. This shelf has 8 practical notes and 13 local stories.
21 notes
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- History and culture The Indian boarding school at the edge of Mount Pleasant From 1893 to 1934 the federal government ran a boarding school in Mount Pleasant that took Native children from across Michigan and beyond; the surviving buildings now belong to the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe.
- Outdoors Deerfield Nature Park, where you can cross the river two ways An Isabella County park west of Mount Pleasant pairs a covered bridge with two swinging suspension bridges over the Chippewa River — a combination found nowhere else in Michigan.
- History and culture How six townships became the Isabella Reservation Treaties signed in 1855 and 1864 set aside six Isabella County townships as a homeland for the Saginaw Chippewa, the reservation that still defines much of the county today.
- History and culture The lumberman who founded Mount Pleasant — but kept the pine Timber baron David Ward platted Mount Pleasant in 1860 and gave Isabella County its five-acre courthouse square — while shrewdly reserving every pine tree on the land for himself.
- History and culture Beal City: a German Catholic colony west of Mount Pleasant Beal City grew from a lumber camp into a tight-knit German Catholic farming community, anchored for 150 years by the parish now called St. Joseph the Worker.
- Outdoors Coldwater Lake Family Park: an all-sports lake near Weidman Isabella County's Coldwater Lake Family Park sits on an all-sports lake near Weidman, with a sandy beach, nearly 100 campsites, rustic cabins, and accessible launches and walkways.
- Outdoors Paddling the Chippewa River through Mount Pleasant The Chippewa River runs about 92 miles from Barryton to Midland, and the stretch through Mount Pleasant offers easy paddling, a beginner rapids course, and a riverside walking trail.
- History and culture Rosebush, the town that couldn't settle on a name The Isabella County village of Rosebush started out as Halfway, then bounced between Calkinsville and Rosebush for years before the name finally stuck in 1903.
- History and culture Shepherd: the village that named itself after the man who rebuilt it The Isabella County village of Shepherd began as a Salt River lumber settlement and took the name of Civil War veteran Isaac Shepherd, whose estate the railroad depot stood on.
- History and culture Winn, briefly Dushville, and the man his own sawmill killed The Isabella County village of Winn was renamed Dushville in 1876 after a lumberman who ran three sawmills — all of which blew up, the last one killing him — and reverted to Winn after his death.
- History and culture A college town with an oil-boom past Mount Pleasant is shaped by Central Michigan University, its oil-boom history, and the Chippewa River running through town.
- Home and property No city income tax in Mount Pleasant Mount Pleasant has no city income tax — unlike East Lansing, which adopted one in 2019 — so wages earned in the CMU town see no city deduction at all.
- History and culture The Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival Shepherd's volunteer-run Maple Syrup Festival is a long-running spring tradition built around pancakes, local syrup, and community giving.
- Home and property Buying on a lake in Isabella County Lakefront buyers in Isabella County should ask about lake boards, special assessments, lake levels, boat rules, and septic systems near the water.
- Home and property Wind country: one of Michigan's biggest wind farms Isabella Wind makes turbines, leases, tax revenue, views, and sound part of the rural home-buying picture in six Isabella County townships.
- Home and property The Isabella Reservation and your property taxes Most private fee land inside the Isabella Reservation is taxed normally; federal trust land is the key exception.
- Home and property On a well and septic? Isabella requires an inspection before you buy Isabella County uses a mandatory time-of-transfer well and septic inspection for township properties with onsite systems.
- History and culture The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe, Soaring Eagle, and Ziibiwing The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, Soaring Eagle, Ziibiwing, and the Tribe's living culture are central to Mount Pleasant.
- Money and taxes Live in a Michigan village? You pay an extra layer of property tax Michigan village residents usually pay village property taxes on top of township taxes, so the village boundary can change a buyer's total rate.
- 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.