County note shelf
Kalamazoo County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Kalamazoo County. This shelf has 7 practical notes and 28 local stories.
35 notes
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- History and cultureA dam over an eight-foot waterfall made the lake at Vicksburg's heartIn 1831 John Vickers dammed an eight-foot falls on Portage Creek for a grist mill; the pond he raised became Sunset Lake, and the town that grew around it took his name.
- History and cultureA lakeside ballroom once drew Chicago crowds to a Pavilion Township parkOn Long Lake's west shore, the Ramona Palace pulled dancers and big bands by rail from as far as Chicago through the 1930s and '40s; the site is now a Portage park.
- OutdoorsAl Sabo: 25 miles of trail sitting on top of Kalamazoo's drinking waterThe Al Sabo Land Preserve in Texas Township is a 700-plus-acre nature area built to guard the wellfield that supplies Kalamazoo's drinking water, with 25 miles of trail laced over the wellheads.
- History and cultureClimax got its name from one settler getting carried awayWhen early settler Daniel Eldred first saw the wide prairie south of Kalamazoo he declared it 'caps the climax of everything I ever saw,' and the name Climax stuck.
- History and cultureKalamazoo County's first sawmill spun up here in 1831Judge Caleb Eldred built the first sawmill in Kalamazoo County at Comstock in 1831, and a year later he and Horace Comstock raised the county's first grist mill on the same fast water.
- History and cultureOshtemo means 'head waters' — and there's a creek to prove itOshtemo Township carries a Potawatomi word meaning head waters, a fitting name for the high ground where Arcadia Creek begins before flowing east into downtown Kalamazoo.
- History and cultureThe cereal king's lake house became a war hospital, then a campusW.K. Kellogg built his summer Manor House on the highest point over Gull Lake in 1925-26, gave it to the military in WWII, and donated the whole estate to Michigan State in 1952.
- History and cultureThe first settler in Kalamazoo County put down roots on a round prairieBazel Harrison moved his family to Prairie Ronde in 1828 as the first settler in what became Kalamazoo County, drawn by an open grassland so distinct the French had named it the round prairie.
- History and cultureWhy a Kalamazoo County township is named after the AlamoSettlers organizing this township in 1838 named it for Davy Crockett and the men who died at the Alamo two years earlier — and gave a neighboring township the name Texas for the same reason.
- Outdoors1,100 acres of woods that started on Halloween, 1960North of Kalamazoo, the Kalamazoo Nature Center protects about 1,100 acres of woods and trails and keeps the 1800s DeLano family homestead alive as a working farm.
- History and cultureAbraham Lincoln's only known Michigan speech was in KalamazooOn August 27, 1856, Abraham Lincoln addressed thousands at a Republican rally in Kalamazoo's Bronson Park — his only known public speech in Michigan.
- OutdoorsFort Custer: a WWI Army camp turned 3,000-acre playgroundThe Fort Custer Recreation Area near Augusta sits on a former World War I Army training camp; today it offers three lakes, a stretch of the Kalamazoo River, and dozens of miles of trail.
- History and cultureGalesburg won its name at the ballot box in 1837Galesburg, a small city on the Kalamazoo River between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, was named for settler George Gale after townsfolk voted down a rival proposal in 1837.
- History and cultureParchment is a city named after a kind of paperParchment, just north of Kalamazoo, grew up around the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company founded in 1909 — and took the mill's product as its name.
- History and cultureThe castle on the hill is a water towerA 175-foot brick water tower built in 1895, crowned with castle battlements, still stands over the former Kalamazoo State Hospital east of downtown.
- OutdoorsThe cereal man who built a refuge for swansCereal magnate W.K. Kellogg fenced off the land around Wintergreen Lake near Augusta in 1927 as a bird sanctuary and gave it to Michigan State, which still runs it.
- History and cultureThe Schoolcraft house that hid a thousand freedom seekersIn Schoolcraft, the 1835 home of Dr. Nathan and Pamela Thomas was one of Michigan's busiest Underground Railroad stops, sheltering freedom seekers on their way to Canada.
- History and cultureVicksburg's rag-paper mill is getting a second lifeThe Lee Paper Mill in Vicksburg made fine cotton-rag writing paper from 1905 until 2001 and is being reborn as a mixed-use development, The Mill at Vicksburg.
- History and cultureWill Rogers called this hilltop the Acropolis of Kalamazoo CountyWestern Michigan University began in 1903 as a small teacher-training school on Kalamazoo's Prospect Hill, whose columned first buildings drew a famous nickname.
- Cars and drivingChecker Motors: the Kalamazoo plant that built America's taxicabFor nearly 60 years, the boxy yellow cab that came to mean 'taxi' was built on Pitcher Street in Kalamazoo.
- History and cultureCelery Flats: when Portage fed America its celeryPortage's mucklands once made the Kalamazoo area America's 'Celery City,' and the Celery Flats Historical Area preserves that story amid parkland and trails.
- History and cultureThe Air Zoo: Portage's hands-on flight museumPortage's Air Zoo — founded by WWII women pilots and now a Smithsonian affiliate — houses rare aircraft including an SR-71B Blackbird, with rides and exhibits kids adore.
- History and cultureAmerica's First 'Walking Mall' Was a Michigan ExperimentKalamazoo opened America's first outdoor pedestrian shopping mall in 1959 — designed, ironically, by the inventor of the enclosed mall.
- History and cultureOne Michigan City Quietly Promised to Pay for Every Kid's College — and Won't Say Who's Funding ItOn November 10, 2005, anonymous donors created the Kalamazoo Promise — paying up to full college tuition for every Kalamazoo Public Schools graduate, with no income or grade requirement — and they're still anonymous.
- History and cultureThe Gibson Guitar Was Born in Kalamazoo, Not NashvilleThe Gibson guitar wasn't born in Nashville — it was built in Kalamazoo for nearly eighty years, and a successor shop still makes guitars by hand in the original factory.
- History and cultureThe Most Degreed Person in Modern History Is a Kalamazoo Man Who Just Kept Going to SchoolMichael Nicholson of Kalamazoo holds the unofficial record for the most earned college degrees — about thirty — and did it for the love of learning.
- History and cultureThe Pill That Actually Dissolves Was Perfected in KalamazooKalamazoo's Dr. William Upjohn cracked the pill that reliably dissolves, patenting his 'friable' pill in 1885 and founding the Upjohn Company in 1886.
- Rules and licensesRenting out a home? Your city may make you register it and pass an inspectionMany Michigan cities require rental homes to be registered and inspected before a tenant can legally move in.
- Cars and drivingOvernight parking in west Michigan: two cities, two rulesGrand Rapids' seasonal rule applies only on signed streets; Kalamazoo generally bars paved-street parking from 2 to 6 a.m. unless an exception applies.
- OutdoorsThe Kal-Haven TrailThe Kal-Haven Trail is a 34-mile rail-trail between Kalamazoo and South Haven, with Bloomingdale at its midpoint.
- Cars and drivingWhy car-insurance quotes change across west MichiganA move across west Michigan can change your car-insurance quote, even though ZIP codes themselves can no longer define an insurer's rating territory.
- History and cultureYes, there really is a Kalamazoo (and it gives kids free college)Kalamazoo County built America's first pedestrian mall in 1959 and, since 2005, sends its public-school graduates to college on the anonymous donors of the Kalamazoo Promise.
- Rules and licensesCan you run an Airbnb here? Your city or township decidesMichigan leaves short-term rental rules to each city or township, so Airbnb and Vrbo rules can change from one community to the next.
- 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.