County note shelf
Kalkaska County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Kalkaska County. This shelf has 3 practical notes and 12 local stories.
15 notes
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- History and cultureRapid City spent six years deciding what to call itselfThe little Clearwater Township settlement was Van Buren, then Vanburen, before residents in 1898 insisted on naming it for the river running through it.
- History and cultureRugg Pond: a power dam the county bought for a dollarA 1904 hydroelectric dam on the Rapid River once lit Kalkaska; condemned in 1980, it's now a quiet natural area citizens fought to save.
- History and cultureSouth Boardman: four churches, five saloons, then a fireA lumber town of 400 grew up where the railroad crossed the Boardman River's south branch, until a 1923 fire gutted its business district.
- History and cultureThe county that was almost named SwanKalkaska County started life in 1840 as Wabassee — the Ojibwe word for swan — before a state official's invented name stuck for good.
- History and cultureTrent the Trout: Kalkaska's 17-foot fish fountainA 17-foot brook trout has leapt out of a fountain in downtown Kalkaska since 1966, a roadside landmark sculpted from a real frozen fish.
- OutdoorsWhere the Boardman River begins, in a Kalkaska swampThe trout-famous Boardman River that carves through Traverse City starts as cold seeps in the Mahan swamp of north-central Kalkaska County.
- OutdoorsWhere the longest trail in the country walks through townThe North Country National Scenic Trail threads through the Pere Marquette State Forest and past Blue Lake on its 4,800-mile run across eight states.
- History and cultureKalkaska, the Trout CapitalKalkaska's railroad-and-lumber past, giant brook trout, and National Trout Festival make the county seat its own northern Michigan landmark.
- OutdoorsTorch Lake's south end and the Rapid RiverClearwater and Rapid River townships are Kalkaska County's Chain of Lakes corner, with Torch Lake, Lake Skegemog, and the Rapid River.
- OutdoorsThe Brook TroutMichigan's state fish is a jewel-colored native of cold, clean water — and a stand-in for the trout-fishing heritage that gave the country Trout Unlimited.
- History and cultureKalkaska SandFew states have an official soil; Michigan does. Kalkaska sand is found nowhere else on Earth, covering close to a million acres of the state's glacial, sandy ground.
- OutdoorsTrout rivers, the state forest, and the gas countryKalkaska County's rural interior is shaped by trout-stream headwaters, state forest land, and northern Michigan oil and gas history.
- Home and propertyWell and septic in Kalkaska CountyKalkaska County requires point-of-sale well and septic evaluations before many rural property transfers.
- 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.