County note shelf
Monroe County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Monroe County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 23 local stories.
27 notes
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- History and cultureBedford Township is three villages without a village governmentTemperance, Lambertville, and Samaria each have their own name and center, but all three remain unincorporated parts of Bedford Township.
- OutdoorsErie Marsh: the biggest piece of Lake Erie wetland Michigan has leftErie Marsh Preserve, on Lake Erie's North Maumee Bay, holds about 11% of the wetlands remaining in southeast Michigan; a 2010s project reconnected it to the lake after 60 years cut off by dikes.
- History and cultureHenry Ford's little mill on the River Raisin in DundeeHenry Ford rebuilt Dundee's 1848-49 grist mill as a small hydro-powered factory, one of his Village Industries plants along southeast Michigan rivers.
- History and cultureHow a sporting-goods store remade the village of DundeeWhen Cabela's opened a 225,000-square-foot outdoor store off US-23 in Dundee in 2000, the small village turned into one of Michigan's busiest tourist stops almost overnight.
- History and cultureIda's old stagecoach tavern had a ballroom upstairsA German immigrant built the Peter Seitz Tavern on the Custer plank toll road near Ida in 1856 — lodging and a bar below, a second-floor dance hall above for stagecoach travelers and farmers alike.
- History and cultureLikely Michigan's oldest house sits on the River Raisin near MonroeThe Navarre-Anderson Trading Post, built in 1789 of stacked squared timbers on the River Raisin, is thought to be the oldest wooden residence still standing in Michigan.
- History and cultureLuna Pier: a Lake Erie town named after a vanished dance hallLuna Pier took its name from a long pier with a dance hall that drew big-band crowds from Toledo in the 1920s; the dance hall is gone, but a curving concrete breakwall keeps the name.
- History and cultureMonroe County's fair predates the Civil WarMonroe County has been holding agricultural fairs since the 1840s; after a century of moving from grove to grove, the fair settled onto its permanent South Custer Road grounds in the late 1940s.
- History and cultureBOP records Michigan's only federal execution at MilanMichigan ended its death penalty for murder in 1846. BOP records Anthony Chebatoris's 1938 hanging at the federal prison in Milan as Michigan's only legal federal execution.
- History and cultureThe only blood spilled in the Toledo War belonged to a Monroe deputyMichigan and Ohio nearly fought over the Toledo Strip in 1835; the war's single casualty was a Monroe County deputy sheriff, stabbed with a penknife while trying to make an arrest.
- History and cultureCarleton: the town that named itself after a poemAsh Township's village of Carleton took its name in 1872 from Will Carleton, the Michigan farm poet its founder admired.
- History and cultureMaybee: definitely a real townExeter Township's village of Maybee — named for settler Abram Maybee in 1873 — has a railroad past, a century-old limestone quarry, and the most quotable name in Monroe County.
- OutdoorsPointe Mouillee: a rebuilt marsh at Lake Erie's edgeBerlin Township borders Pointe Mouillee State Game Area, one of North America's great freshwater marsh restorations and host of a waterfowl festival running since the 1940s.
- History and cultureGeorge Custer's hometown — and the ongoing debate over his statueMonroe has long claimed George Custer, but the downtown Custer statue remains part of an unresolved local debate.
- Home and propertyMonroe's tap water comes from Lake Erie — and what that means in summerMonroe draws drinking water from western Lake Erie, where summer algae blooms are watched closely and treated by the city water department.
- History and cultureMilk in glass bottles, delivered: Calder DairyThe Calder family dairy near Carleton has bottled milk in glass and run home delivery since 1946, and welcomes families out to the farm.
- OutdoorsSterling State Park: Michigan's only state park on Lake ErieFrenchtown Township is home to Sterling State Park — a mile of Lake Erie beach, lagoons full of birds, and a trail link to the national battlefield park.
- History and cultureMonroe: an old French town, the "Floral City," and the home of La-Z-BoyMonroe's identity reaches from its Frenchtown roots and Floral City nursery history to La-Z-Boy's global headquarters.
- History and cultureWhy the river is named Raisin (and the township Raisinville)French settlers named Monroe County's river the Rivière aux Raisins for the wild grapes draping its banks — and Raisinville Township carries the name on.
- History and cultureMonroe and the River Raisin: "Remember the Raisin"Monroe's River Raisin National Battlefield Park is the only national battlefield marking a War of 1812 site, and it follows the story through its aftermath.
- OutdoorsDownriver's secret: an international wildlife refuge at the front doorNorth America's only international wildlife refuge grew from U.S.-Canadian cooperation and protects more than 30 separate habitat parcels along the lower Detroit River and western Lake Erie.
- OutdoorsOut of Monroe's harbors, the world's best walleye waterWestern Lake Erie's walleye fishery is so productive that anglers call it the Walleye Capital of the World — and Monroe County's harbors are Michigan's front door to it.
- Home and propertyThere's a nuclear plant on Lake Erie nearby — what that means if you're buying near MonroeMonroe sits within the Fermi 2 nuclear plant emergency planning zone, with routine siren tests, county planning, and a separate Fermi 1 history worth understanding.
- History and cultureWhy Does Michigan Have So Many Places Named After Foreign Places?Michigan's map is full of foreign and classical town names — Paris, Moscow, Athens, Rome — left over from an 1800s naming boom, and locals pronounce most of them their own way.
- History and cultureMuskrat dinners: Monroe County's proudest acquired tasteMonroe County's 'Muskrat French' families have eaten marsh muskrat since the 1780s — a Lenten tradition that's still served at lodge dinners today.
- 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.