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 8 local stories.
13 notes
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- Outdoors Copper Harbor, the end of the road At 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 culture Eagle River and Eagle Harbor, two jewels on the shore Two 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 taxes Is 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.
- Outdoors Isle Royale, the national park almost nobody visits Far 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 culture The Cliff Mine, where Copper Country began At 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 culture What 'Keweenaw' means Keweenaw 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.
- History and culture How 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.
- Outdoors Manganese Falls At nearly the northern tip of the Keweenaw, Manganese Falls hides in a slot so narrow and deep you peer down from an overlook to glimpse it — a tucked-away stop on a Copper Country waterfall tour.
- History and culture The Isle Royale Greenstone Michigan'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 property What to know about well and septic in Keweenaw County Nearly 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 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.