County note shelf
Menominee County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Menominee County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 14 local stories.
18 notes
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- OutdoorsMenominee's red lighthouse, lit on New Year's Day 1877A small octagonal cast-iron tower has marked the mouth of the Menominee River since 1877; the city took it over from the Coast Guard in 2008 and keeps the red beacon shining.
- OutdoorsPemene Falls, the hard-to-find rapids on the Menominee RiverDown a gravel road in Faithorn Township, the Menominee River drops through Pemene Falls — one of three units in a 7,652-acre state recreation area Michigan and Wisconsin manage together.
- History and culturePowers began as a Menominee Range railroad junctionPowers grew where the Chicago & North Western main line met the branch toward the Menominee iron range.
- OutdoorsShakey Lakes: a county park wrapped around four lakesMenominee County runs a 240-acre park among four lakes near Stephenson, with a sand beach on Resort Lake, well over a hundred campsites, and miles of trails through the woods.
- OutdoorsThe brewer who gave Menominee a 50-acre park on Green BayJohn Henes ran a brewery and patented a bottling machine used across the beer industry, then in 1907 handed the city 50 wooded acres on the Green Bay shore for a public park.
- History and cultureThe Menominee library a lumberman built to look like a French chateauAugustus Spies made his fortune in white pine, then gave Menominee a Beaux-Arts library by the firm that designed Carnegie libraries across the Midwest.
- History and cultureTwo railroad towns, two names: how Nadeau and Carney got theirsBruno Nadeau farmed the first land here and his sons cut railroad ties; the township took his name, while nearby Carney was named for a man who built a warehouse at the tracks.
- History and cultureHermansville and the maple flooring stamped IXLIn 1888, Hermansville's lumber company opened a mill for kiln-dried rock-maple flooring and sent boards stamped IXL to builders across the growing West.
- History and cultureHow Menominee County got its nameThe river, the city, and the county all carry the name of the Menominee -- the Wild Rice People, whose own story begins at the mouth of this very river, and whose nation endures today.
- History and cultureHow Stephenson got its nameStephenson started as a railroad water stop called Wacedah, then took the name of the Stephenson lumber family in 1876 -- and Wisconsin's town of Stephenson, across the river, honors a different brother.
- Money and taxesIs there a city income tax in Menominee?Menominee charges no city income tax -- neither does Stephenson, and neither does anywhere else in the Upper Peninsula. The nearest one is Grayling, well over a hundred miles away.
- OutdoorsJ.W. Wells State Park, where the old forest survivedOn three miles of Green Bay shore stands J.W. Wells State Park -- built around a stand of virgin timber that survived the lumber boom, donated by a lumberman's own children in 1925.
- History and cultureWhen Menominee floated a forest down the riverIn the white-pine years, the Menominee River carried billions of feet of logs to the mills at Menominee and Marinette -- twin cities that styled themselves the White Pine Capital of the World.
- History and cultureWhy Do Some Parts of the U.P. Have a Different Time Than the Rest of Michigan?Most of Michigan runs on Eastern Time, but four counties in the western U.P. that border Wisconsin — Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, and Menominee — sit on Central Time.
- Home and propertyWhat to know about well and septic in Menominee CountyOutside the cities and villages, most of Menominee 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 can evaluate a system if you ask.
- OutdoorsMenominee: river rapids, a Green Bay shore, and the U.P.'s mildest cornerMenominee County runs from the wild Menominee River to Green Bay's M-35 beach drive — the warmest, most farmable corner of the Upper Peninsula.
- 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.