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 21 local stories.
25 notes
Read the county shelf
- Outdoors Erie Marsh: the biggest piece of Lake Erie wetland Michigan has left Erie 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 culture Henry Ford's little mill on the River Raisin in Dundee Henry 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 culture How a sporting-goods store remade the village of Dundee When 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 culture Ida's old stagecoach tavern had a ballroom upstairs A 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 culture Likely Michigan's oldest house sits on the River Raisin near Monroe The 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 culture Luna Pier: a Lake Erie town named after a vanished dance hall Luna 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 culture Monroe County's fair predates the Civil War Monroe 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 culture The only blood spilled in the Toledo War belonged to a Monroe deputy Michigan 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 culture The only execution in modern Michigan happened at the Milan prison Michigan banned the death penalty in 1846, but in 1938 a federal court hanged a bank robber at the Milan prison — the one execution carried out in the state since it became a state.
- History and culture Carleton: the town that named itself after a poem Ash Township's village of Carleton took its name in 1872 from Will Carleton, the Michigan farm poet its founder admired.
- History and culture Maybee: definitely a real town Exeter 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.
- Outdoors Pointe Mouillee: a world-class marsh rebuilt at Lake Erie's edge Berlin 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 culture George Custer's hometown — and the ongoing debate over his statue Monroe has long claimed George Custer, but the downtown Custer statue remains part of an unresolved local debate.
- Home and property Monroe's tap water comes from Lake Erie — and what that means in summer Monroe draws drinking water from western Lake Erie, where summer algae blooms are watched closely and treated by the city water department.
- History and culture Milk in glass bottles, delivered: Calder Dairy The Calder family dairy near Carleton has bottled milk in glass and run home delivery since 1946, and welcomes families out to the farm.
- Outdoors Sterling State Park: Michigan's only state park on Lake Erie Frenchtown 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 culture Monroe: an old French town, the "Floral City," and the home of La-Z-Boy Monroe's identity reaches from its Frenchtown roots and Floral City nursery history to La-Z-Boy's global headquarters.
- History and culture Why 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 culture Monroe and the River Raisin: "Remember the Raisin" Monroe is home to River Raisin National Battlefield Park, the only national battlefield park marking a War of 1812 battle.
- Outdoors Out of Monroe's harbors, the world's best walleye water Western 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 property There's a nuclear plant on Lake Erie nearby — what that means if you're buying near Monroe Monroe 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 culture Why 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 culture Muskrat dinners: Monroe County's proudest acquired taste Monroe 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 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.