County note shelf
Keweenaw County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Keweenaw County. This shelf has 5 practical notes and 9 local stories.
14 notes
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- OutdoorsCopper Harbor, the end of the roadAt the very tip of the Keweenaw sits Copper Harbor -- Michigan's northernmost town and the spot where US-41 finally ends, nearly two thousand miles from its other end in Miami.
- History and cultureEagle River and Eagle Harbor, two jewels on the shoreTwo tiny lakefront villages on the Keweenaw's north shore -- Eagle River, the county seat, and Eagle Harbor with its classic red lighthouse. Just offshore is where the man the county and copper rush owe everything to, Douglass Houghton, drowned.
- Money and taxesIs there a city income tax in Keweenaw County?There's no city income tax in Keweenaw County -- and there couldn't be one, since the county has no cities at all. The nearest is Grayling, well over two hundred miles away.
- OutdoorsIsle Royale, the national park almost nobody visitsFar out in Lake Superior -- but still part of Keweenaw County -- Isle Royale is the least-visited national park in the Lower 48: a roadless wilderness of wolves, moose, and water reachable only by boat or seaplane.
- History and cultureThe Cliff Mine, where Copper Country beganAt the now-vanished town of Clifton, the Cliff Mine became the first truly successful copper mine in Michigan -- proving the Keweenaw's riches were real and setting off everything that followed.
- History and cultureWhat 'Keweenaw' meansKeweenaw is an Ojibwe word for a portage -- the place where you carry your canoe across the land. It names the county, the peninsula, and the whole copper-rich corner that the Ojibwe knew and worked long before anyone else.
- OutdoorsManganese Falls: the tucked-away Copper Harbor stopA short path off Manganese Road leads to a viewing area above a narrow, wooded gorge just south of Copper Harbor. Come for a careful glimpse, not a wide-open waterfall panorama.
- OutdoorsThe Keweenaw Winter That Reached 390.4 InchesKeweenaw County's road commission reports 390.4 inches in 1978-79; a roadside gauge marks that local record without turning it into a national one.
- History and cultureHow Many Great Lakes Does Michigan Actually Touch?Michigan touches four of the five Great Lakes (everything but Ontario) — the only state that does — and Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake entirely inside the U.S.
- History and cultureThe Isle Royale GreenstoneMichigan's state gem is a rare green stone with a 'turtleback' shimmer — born of billion-year-old lava, and findable only on Isle Royale (where you can't collect it) and the Keweenaw.
- Home and propertyWhat to know about well and septic in Keweenaw CountyNearly all of remote Keweenaw County is on private well and septic. Michigan has no statewide septic code, and the local health department doesn't require an inspection when a property is sold -- though it offers one that some home loans and buyers ask for.
- Money and taxesLive in a Michigan village? You pay an extra layer of property taxMichigan 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 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.