County note shelf
Manistee County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Manistee County. This shelf has 3 practical notes and 19 local stories.
22 notes
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- History and cultureThe Ramsdell Theatre, where James Earl Jones first walked on stageManistee's lumber-baron opera house opened in 1903 with a green-and-gold horseshoe balcony and a painted dome, and a young James Earl Jones learned his craft on its stage.
- History and cultureThe City of Milwaukee carried railroad cars across Lake MichiganThe 1931 City of Milwaukee carried loaded railroad cars across Lake Michigan and is the sole surviving pre-1940, classic-period Great Lakes car ferry.
- History and cultureThe Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, recognized again in 1994An Odawa nation tied to the Manistee River for centuries had its federal status quietly erased, then won it back in 1994 — and today runs its own government and a resort north of town.
- History and cultureGuardian Angels Church and the 170-foot tower over ManisteeBuilt from 1888 to 1890 for a largely Irish and German congregation, Guardian Angels is a Romanesque landmark with a 170-foot steeple.
- History and cultureManistee's North Pierhead Light and its rare wind-proof catwalkA little red 1927 lighthouse guards the mouth of the Manistee River, reached by an elevated steel catwalk — one of only a handful left in Michigan after most were torn down.
- History and cultureManistee's Sleighbell Parade, where a horse team pulls a 30-foot tree uprightEvery December, downtown Manistee bans electric lights and recorded music for a candlelit Victorian Christmas parade whose finale is a Belgian draft team standing a 30-foot tree upright on River Street.
- OutdoorsOrchard Beach State Park, where they moved a stone pavilion to outrun the lakeOn a 100-foot bluff north of Manistee sits one of Michigan's best-preserved 1930s state parks — and in 2020 crews picked up its CCC-built stone pavilion and rolled it 1,200 feet inland.
- Rules and licensesRenting your Onekama cottage by the week? The township has rules nowOnekama Township adopted a short-term rental ordinance in 2023 that requires owners to register vacation rentals with the township and renew that registration every year.
- History and cultureThe Forest Festival, a Fourth of July that grew out of a homecomingManistee's National Forest Festival, run every Fourth of July since 1936, started as a town homecoming and took its forest theme from the national forest land assembled around it in the 1930s.
- History and cultureThe Old Kirke, the oldest Danish Lutheran church building in the countryManistee's white frame Old Kirke, built by Danish immigrants in the late 1860s, is the oldest surviving Danish Lutheran church building in the United States — and it holds a carved Viking ship.
- History and cultureThe Portage Point Inn, the 1903 resort that outlived the steamshipsOnekama's Portage Point Inn opened in 1903 on the strip of land between Portage Lake and Lake Michigan, back when steamships brought guests straight from Chicago and Milwaukee.
- History and cultureThe Salt City of the Inland Seas: how Manistee dug a fortune from brineAfter the pines ran low, Manistee drilled almost 2,000 feet down, struck salt, and by the 1890s boiled out over a million barrels a year — Morton still works the same ground.
- History and cultureThe Vogue Theatre, a 1938 movie house the town rebuilt by handManistee's Art Deco Vogue opened in 1938, went dark in 2005, and reopened in 2013 after the town raised the money and hundreds of neighbors put in volunteer hours.
- OutdoorsTippy Dam, where anglers stand shoulder to shoulder for fall salmonA 1918 hydro dam near Brethren put a wall across the Manistee River — and the deep, cold water just below it became one of Michigan's most crowded, famous salmon and steelhead runs.
- History and cultureOld Stronach burned, but its rail bridge stayedStronach began with an 1841 sawmill, lost most of its first village to an 1885 fire, and still has an 1887 rail bridge.
- OutdoorsArcadia: the bluffs, the dunes, and a famous flyerArcadia's Lake Michigan bluffs, golf course, dunes, marsh, and Harriet Quimby history shape the far northwest corner of Manistee County.
- History and cultureKaleva, the Finnish villageKaleva's Finnish roots and the Makinen Bottle House give central Manistee County one of its signature village stories.
- OutdoorsOnekama and Portage LakeOnekama's Portage Lake harbor, Lake Michigan beaches, and famous 1871 Cut make it a classic Manistee County resort community.
- OutdoorsBear Lake, Copemish, and the countrysideNorthern and inland Manistee County mixes Bear Lake, old railroad villages, Manistee Lake, farms, and wooded acreage.
- OutdoorsThe Manistee River and the National ForestEastern Manistee County is big-woods country shaped by the Manistee River, national forest land, fishing, paddling, and cabins.
- 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.