County note shelf
Mason County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Mason County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 16 local stories.
20 notes
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- History and culture White Pine Village: a frontier town rebuilt under the pines Two miles south of Ludington, Historic White Pine Village preserves more than 25 buildings of 1800s Mason County life, including the county's first courthouse.
- Outdoors Ludington's breakwater light, built to take a beating The steel pyramidal lighthouse at the end of Ludington's pier was built in 1924 to shrug off Lake Michigan's waves — and it now leans a few degrees from a 1990s settling.
- History and culture Scottville got its name on a coin flip Scottville was renamed in the 1880s when two businessmen flipped a coin on a downtown corner; Hiram Scott won the toss and put his own name on the town.
- History and culture Custer, Michigan, and the year Custer fell The village of Custer in Mason County was platted in 1876 — the year George Armstrong Custer died at Little Bighorn — and its township was named for the Michigan-raised general two years later.
- History and culture Epworth Heights: the Methodist summer colony on the dunes On the dunes north of Ludington, Epworth Heights is a private Methodist summer colony founded in 1894, now hundreds of cottages run under an 1889 state resort law.
- History and culture Free Soil, Michigan, is named for an antislavery party Free Soil Township was named in 1848 for the Free Soil Party, the antislavery movement whose slogan was 'free soil, free labor, free men' — years before the Civil War.
- History and culture How Ludington's leftover brine became an industry A lumber company drilling for salt struck brine under Ludington in 1885, and the salty water beneath Mason County outlasted the pines — feeding Morton Salt and, later, a Dow chemical plant.
- History and culture Hamlin Lake and the town that washed away Hamlin Lake is Michigan's largest man-made lake, shaped by lumber dams and the lost town of Hamlin on the Big Sable River.
- History and culture Ludington and the great car ferries of Lake Michigan Ludington's harbor is still home to the S.S. Badger, the last coal-fired passenger steamship in the United States.
- Outdoors Ludington State Park and the Big Sable Point Light Ludington State Park stretches between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake, with dunes, trails, beach, river paddling, and the Big Sable Point Light.
- History and culture The giant battery on the lakeshore: Ludington's Pumped Storage Plant South of Ludington, the pumped storage plant works like a giant battery, moving Lake Michigan water uphill and back down to support the electric grid.
- History and culture The Pere Marquette name and Father Marquette Around Ludington, the Pere Marquette name points back to Father Jacques Marquette and a long-debated Lake Michigan death-site tradition.
- History and culture The world-famous Scottville Clown Band Scottville's long-running Clown Band has brought its joyful, noisy parade act to Michigan festivals for generations.
- Outdoors Big Sable Point: The Striped Giant You Have to Hike To A 112-foot black-and-white giant in the Ludington dunes, reached only by a 1.8-mile hike — one of Michigan's tallest lighthouses.
- Money and taxes Good news on city income tax in Mason County Ludington and Scottville do not levy a city income tax, so Mason County has no local income tax on paychecks.
- History and culture The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and Mason County The 1855 reservation tied the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians to Custer and Eden townships, where Indian Town stood near the Pere Marquette River.
- Home and property Wells and septic in Mason County: what buyers should know Mason County does not require point-of-sale well and septic inspections, so rural buyers should order their own checks.
- History and culture The Badger still sails: Mason County's working steamship Mason County's Ludington is home port of the SS Badger — the last coal-fired steamship in America, a National Historic Landmark that ferries cars to Wisconsin all summer.
- 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.