County note shelf

Kent County Porch Notes

Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Kent County. This shelf has 11 practical notes and 56 local stories.

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Money and taxes Your Mail Says Grand Rapids, Your Income Tax Says Walker A Grand Rapids mailing address doesn't mean you owe Grand Rapids. Much of Walker gets GR mail, but the city taxing your paycheck is Walker.
History and culture The Grand Rapids boy who flew to Apollo 1 — and the planetarium that carries his name Roger B. Chaffee, born in Grand Rapids in 1935, was one of three astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire; his hometown museum renamed its planetarium for him.
History and culture GM built its first stamping plant in Wyoming — and 28th Street grew up around it General Motors opened its first metal-stamping plant in Wyoming in 1936; at its peak it employed thousands, and after it closed in 2009 the land became Site 36.
Outdoors A road course on an old Christmas-tree farm in Grattan Township Grattan Raceway, a two-mile road course in rural Grattan Township, has hosted sports-car racing since the early 1960s and drawn names like Paul Newman to its turns.
Outdoors Blandford Nature Center: 264 wooded acres a museum lecturer talked into existence A 264-acre nature center on the west side of Grand Rapids that grew from a 17-acre family gift, the doing of one persistent museum naturalist, Mary Jane Dockeray.
Rules and licenses In East Grand Rapids, the cop and the firefighter are the same person East Grand Rapids merged its police and fire departments in the mid-1980s; every sworn officer is cross-trained to do police work, fight fires, and run medical calls.
History and culture Kentwood took its name from a school district When Paris Township incorporated in 1967 to avoid being annexed, the new city skipped its own old names and borrowed one from the local school system: Kentwood.
History and culture Lowell still mills flour where the Flat meets the Grand King Milling has ground wheat into flour on the west bank of the Flat River in Lowell since 1890, one of the oldest family-run flour mills left in the country.
History and culture Rockford was Laphamville first — and got its new name from a rocky ford in the river Rockford began as Laphamville, named for sawmill owner Smith Lapham; when the railroad came through in the 1860s the town was renamed Rockford for the rocky ford below the dam.
History and culture Sparta's foundry once made millions of piston rings a year The Sparta Foundry, founded in 1921 to cast piston rings for the auto industry, grew into the village's financial anchor and later merged into Muskegon Piston Ring.
History and culture The downtown ice rink with the year-2000 sky frozen under it Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids is a Maya Lin design called Ecliptic; fiber-optic lights set into the ice map the stars over the city at midnight on January 1, 2000.
History and culture The fur trader who settled Ada — and Kent County — before there was a Grand Rapids Rix Robinson set up a fur-trading post where the Thornapple meets the Grand River in 1821, becoming the first permanent settler of what would become Kent County.
History and culture Walker became a city to keep Grand Rapids from eating it Walker, a Kent County township since 1837, rushed to incorporate as a city in 1962 to stop Grand Rapids from annexing its industrial land piece by piece.
History and culture West Michigan's airport sits in Cascade Township — and is named for a hometown president Gerald R. Ford International Airport opened in Cascade Township in 1963 as Kent County Airport, and took the name of Grand Rapids' own president, the 38th, in 1999.
History and culture Why a Grandville creek is named for plaster Plaster Creek in Grandville is named for the gypsum found along its banks; the first mill to grind that gypsum into plaster was built where the creek crossed the Grandville Road in 1841.
Rules and licenses You can keep backyard chickens in Grand Rapids — with a permit and no roosters Grand Rapids legalized backyard hens in 2016 after a two-year pilot; the city allows up to four to six birds on a permit, with hard rules on coops — and no roosters.
History and culture Amway: the global company that started in two Ada basements Two childhood friends, Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos, founded Amway in 1959 from the basements of their Ada homes; it never left, and now runs a mile-long world headquarters there.
History and culture Byron Township's first farm belonged to a man who never worked it Byron Township, home to Byron Center, traces its first settlement to Nathan Boynton, who picked out a farm in 1835 but fell ill before he could improve it — so his brothers Jeremiah and William did the work.
History and culture Caledonia moved itself a few miles to meet a railroad The first settler in this part of Kent County ran an inn on the old wagon road, but the village of Caledonia grew up miles away around an 1870 railroad stop called Caledonia Station, and incorporated in 1888.
Outdoors Cannonsburg Ski Area: a ski hill 15 minutes from downtown Grand Rapids Cannonsburg Ski Area has run lifts on the rolling hills of Cannon Township, northeast of Grand Rapids, since 1965 — close enough for an after-work run on machine-made snow.
History and culture Cedar Springs: the lumber town the railroad made, before the red flannel Cedar Springs grew as an 1850s lumber town in northern Kent County, boomed when the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad reached it in 1868, and became a village in 1871 — long before it was famous for underwear.
History and culture John Ball Park: the 40 acres the city almost shrugged off When John Ball died in 1884 he left 40 wooded acres to Grand Rapids for a park; some leaders thought the plot was worthless, but it grew into John Ball Park and the John Ball Zoo.
History and culture La Grande Vitesse: the red Calder that became the city's logo The 42-ton red steel Calder on a downtown Grand Rapids plaza was the first public artwork paid for by the National Endowment for the Arts — and the city liked it so much it built its logo around it.
Outdoors Millennium Park: a 1,400-acre park dug out of gravel pits Kent County turned roughly 1,400 acres of spent gravel and gypsum mining land southwest of Grand Rapids into Millennium Park, with a beach, miles of trails, and six miles of Grand River frontage.
History and culture Sparta was almost called Nashville The orchard village of Sparta in northern Kent County started out as Nashville, named for an early sawmill settler — but Michigan already had a Nashville, so it took the name of ancient Greece instead.
Outdoors The Grand River fish ladder doubles as a sculpture An artist-designed concrete fish ladder below the Sixth Street Dam in Grand Rapids lets salmon and steelhead climb the Grand River, and a raised platform puts you a few feet from the fall run.
Outdoors Versluis Park: a barrier-free beach on an old gravel lake Plainfield Township's Versluis Park wraps a no-fee swimming beach, a fishing pier, and a mile of paved loop around a 50-acre man-made lake — and it was built so wheelchair users can reach the water.
History and culture Wyoming, Michigan: a New York name and the 28th Street strip Wyoming took its name from Wyoming County, New York, became a city in 1959, and built itself along 28th Street — once home to Studio 28, a 20-screen theater billed as one of the world's largest.
History and culture Frederik Meijer Gardens: a grocer's gift, and a horse five centuries late A 158-acre garden and sculpture park in Grand Rapids, home to a giant bronze horse based on a Leonardo da Vinci design left unfinished for 500 years.
History and culture Eat a dozen chili dogs, join the Hall of Fame: Rockford's Corner Bar Rockford's Corner Bar has run its Hot Dog Hall of Fame since 1968, burned to the walls in 2017, and reopened a year later to a line down Main Street.
Outdoors Salmon in the river, 92 miles of trail: downtown Rockford's backyard Rockford's downtown sits where the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail crosses the Rogue River — salmon and steelhead below the dam, and one of Michigan's longest rail-trails out the door.
History and culture Apple country: Sparta and the Fruit Ridge The Fruit Ridge around Sparta is one of Michigan's strongest apple-growing regions, shaped by soil, elevation, and Lake Michigan.
History and culture ArtPrize: when downtown Grand Rapids becomes one giant art show ArtPrize turns downtown Grand Rapids into a free, city-sized art show each fall.
History and culture Beer City USA: how Grand Rapids became a craft-beer capital Grand Rapids earned the Beer City USA nickname through a national fan vote and a fast-growing craft-brewery scene.
History and culture Before the suburbs: when Reeds Lake was the place to be Before East Grand Rapids became a quiet suburb, Reeds Lake was home to Ramona Park, the region's biggest amusement spot.
Rules and licenses Buying a historic Grand Rapids home? You may need the city's OK to change the outside Grand Rapids historic districts require city approval for many exterior changes before a building permit can be issued.
History and culture Cedar Springs: the 'Red Flannel Town' Cedar Springs became the Red Flannel Town after a 1930s newspaper exchange turned long underwear into a civic identity.
History and culture Grand Rapids: the original Furniture City Grand Rapids was once the center of the American furniture industry, then reinvented itself around office furniture.
History and culture How Grand Rapids became the first city to fluoridate its water Grand Rapids was the first U.S. city to add fluoride to its drinking water, a public-health experiment that began in 1945.
History and culture Michigan's only president is buried in downtown Grand Rapids Gerald R. Ford, the only U.S. president from Michigan, is buried with Betty Ford at his presidential museum in downtown Grand Rapids.
History and culture Rockford: a shoe town on the river, and the water cleanup that followed Rockford's Wolverine footwear history is part local pride and part PFAS cleanup story.
History and culture The 'rapids' that vanished from Grand Rapids Grand Rapids was named for real rapids on the Grand River, and a restoration project is set to bring them back.
History and culture The Grand Rapids Chicks: women's pro baseball The Grand Rapids Chicks played women's professional baseball from 1945 to 1954 and won two league championships.
History and culture The Lowell Showboat Lowell's riverfront showboat began as a Depression-era variety show and now carries both community pride and a hard history.
History and culture The Medical Mile: how Grand Rapids became a research hub Grand Rapids' Medical Mile turned a stretch of Michigan Street into a major hospital, research, and medical-school corridor.
History and culture The Whitecaps: minor-league baseball (and a 4,800-calorie burger) The West Michigan Whitecaps bring Tigers prospects, summer baseball, and famously over-the-top ballpark food to the Grand Rapids area.
History and culture Hush Puppies Were Born in a Small Michigan Town — and Named After Fried Dough Hush Puppies — the soft suede casual shoe — were born in 1958 in Rockford, Michigan, and named after the fried dough that quiets barking dogs.
History and culture The Wet Burrito: A Michigan Original The smothered, fork-and-knife burrito that West Michigan calls its own — almost certainly born at Grand Rapids' Beltline Bar in 1966.
History and culture West Michigan's answer to the Dream Cruise rolls down 28th Street The 28th Street Metro Cruise fills Wyoming and Kentwood with 15,000 classic cars and a quarter-million spectators every August.
History and culture Meijer: the Grand Rapids store that invented one-stop shopping Meijer's 1962 Thrifty Acres store in Grand Rapids helped invent one-stop shopping, and the company is still headquartered in Walker.
History and culture Why so many things in Grand Rapids are named DeVos and Van Andel The DeVos and Van Andel names are all over Grand Rapids because two local friends built Amway and became major philanthropists.
History and culture "Beer City, USA" Is in Michigan — and the Best Beer in America Has a Fish on the Label Grand Rapids is "Beer City, USA," and Bell's Two Hearted Ale was voted the best beer in America four years running.
History and culture The "Supercenter" — That Giant One-Stop Store — Was Invented in Grand Rapids Meijer pioneered the American supercenter in Grand Rapids in 1962 — the one-stop store that Walmart and others would later chase.
History and culture The Motor City Also Kept Your Food Cold: The Kelvinator Story Kelvinator, founded in Detroit in 1914, didn't invent the refrigerator — but it made it practical, controlling 80% of the U.S. market by 1923.
History and culture There are miles of old mine tunnels under Grand Rapids Old gypsum mine tunnels run under parts of Grand Rapids, Wyoming, and Grandville, and some are still used for storage.
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.
Rules and licenses Renting out a home? Your city may make you register it and pass an inspection Many Michigan cities require rental homes to be registered and inspected before a tenant can legally move in.
Money and taxes Which Grand Rapids-area cities charge a local income tax? In Kent County, Grand Rapids and Walker charge a local income tax, while most nearby suburbs do not.
History and culture Why Does Michigan Have So Many Places Named After Foreign Places? Michigan's map is full of foreign and classical town names — Paris, Moscow, Athens, Rome — left over from an 1800s naming boom, and locals pronounce most of them their own way.
Cars and driving Parking overnight in west Michigan? Watch the winter street rules Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo handle overnight winter street parking differently, and nearby cities set their own local rules.