County note shelf
Mackinac County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Mackinac County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 20 local stories.
24 notes
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- History and culture A short history of Mackinac Island Mackinac Island's story runs from Anishinaabe sacred ground to Fort Mackinac, Victorian cottages, the Grand Hotel, and island fudge.
- Outdoors Bois Blanc, the island time forgot Bois Blanc Island is a remote, wooded Mackinac County island with dirt roads, state forest, inland lakes, and quiet shoreline.
- Money and taxes Does St. Ignace have a city income tax? St. Ignace and the rest of Mackinac County do not levy a local city income tax.
- Cars and driving Mackinac Island, the island with no cars Mackinac Island has banned cars since 1898, so residents and visitors get around by foot, bicycle, horse, and winter snowmobile.
- Outdoors Naubinway, the top of Lake Michigan Naubinway is a tiny Garfield Township fishing community known as the northernmost town on Lake Michigan.
- History and culture St. Ignace, one of Michigan's oldest towns St. Ignace's 1671 Father Marquette mission anchors one of Michigan's oldest settlement stories at the Straits of Mackinac.
- Outdoors The Lake Michigan shore and the Cut River Bridge Brevort anchors a quiet Lake Michigan shore of US-2 beaches, dunes, Hiawatha National Forest, and the nearby Cut River Bridge.
- Outdoors The Les Cheneaux Islands Clark Township is the gateway to the Les Cheneaux Islands, a sheltered Lake Huron boating and cottage region.
- History and culture The Mackinac Bridge, gateway to the U.P. St. Ignace sits at the Upper Peninsula end of the Mackinac Bridge, the Mighty Mac gateway across the Straits.
- History and culture How a Tiny Island Became the "Fudge Capital of the World" Mackinac Island is the "Fudge Capital of the World," a tradition the Murdick family started in 1887 with marble-slab fudge and aroma-fans.
- History and culture How Do You Actually Pronounce "Mackinac"? Mackinac — the bridge, island, and straits — is pronounced MACK-in-aw, with a silent 'c,' thanks to a French respelling of an Ojibwe name. Here's the rule for Michigan's tricky place names.
- History and culture The Burial Place of a French Priest, and the Story of the Straits The Museum of Ojibwa Culture and Marquette Mission Park in St. Ignace — built on a 17th-century Huron village and the 1671 mission where Father Marquette is believed to be buried.
- History and culture The Front Porch So Long It (Supposedly) Set a World Record Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel, open since 1887, boasts a 660-foot front porch it calls the world's largest.
- Outdoors The Les Cheneaux Islands: A Wooden-Boat Paradise Thirty-six islands, a maze of sheltered channels, and the country's largest antique wooden boat show every August.
- History and culture The Michigan Island That Banned Cars in 1898 — and Never Took It Back Mackinac Island banned automobiles in 1898 and never looked back. More than 125 years later you still get around by foot, bike, or horse — on the only car-free state highway in the country.
- History and culture The Spot Where Your Eyes Lie to You St. Ignace's Mystery Spot is a beloved 'gravity hill' roadside illusion — your eyes lie, gravity doesn't break.
- History and culture Round Island: The Little Lighthouse That Became a Movie Star A picture-perfect red-and-white lighthouse near Mackinac Island that nearly fell to ruin before locals saved it — and that you may recognize from the film 'Somewhere in Time'.
- History and culture Why Does the Upper Peninsula Belong to Michigan and Not Wisconsin? The Upper Peninsula is attached to Wisconsin, not the rest of Michigan — Michigan got it as a consolation prize for losing the Toledo War to Ohio, and the copper and iron beneath it made the deal a steal.
- History and culture What's a "Yooper"? What's a "Troll"? And Why Do People Point at Their Hand? A Yooper is from the Upper Peninsula, a Troll lives 'under the bridge' in the Lower, a Fudgie is a tourist — and yes, Michiganders really do use their hand as a map.
- History and culture Why Is the Lower Peninsula Shaped Like a Mitten — and Is the Whole State Really Two Pieces? Michigan really is two separate landmasses, joined since 1957 by the five-mile Mackinac Bridge — and the Lower Peninsula's famous mitten shape is pure luck of the glaciers.
- Outdoors The Dwarf Lake Iris Michigan's state wildflower is a tiny, vivid blue-violet iris that grows almost nowhere else on Earth — only along the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron.
- Home and property Wells, septic systems, and what to check before you buy Mackinac County township buyers should check private wells and septic systems because there is no automatic sale-time inspection rule.
- 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.