County note shelf
Montcalm County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Montcalm County. This shelf has 8 practical notes and 23 local stories.
31 notes
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- History and cultureGreenville's school-bond glider and the D-Day Fighting FalconGreenville students raised more than $72,000 in war-bond sales and christened a hometown-built glider in 1943. On D-Day, a replacement Gibson glider carrying the same name led a 52-glider mission into Normandy.
- History and cultureA whole 1900s village rebuilt near SidneyHeritage Village at Montcalm Community College near Sidney is a cluster of 28 old buildings — a log cabin, town hall, jail, print shop — moved in and restored to show turn-of-the-century county life.
- OutdoorsThe 1880 trestle that moved to StantonSouth of Stanton, the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail crosses Fish Creek on an 1880 railroad trestle that was relocated from Greenville — one landmark on a 42-mile rail-trail through Montcalm County.
- OutdoorsTower Mountain: a free rope tow in townGreenville runs a small city park with the only rope-tow ski and sledding hill in Montcalm County, free to anyone, whenever there's four inches of packed snow.
- History and cultureTrufant's fences made of pine stumpsDanish farmers around Trufant tipped white-pine stumps together into livestock fences; century-old stretches could still be seen in the area in the 1970s.
- History and cultureCrystal: a community wrapped around Crystal LakeCrystal Lake is the center of this Montcalm County community, with state and township access points, a public park, and a managed lake level.
- History and cultureEdmore, where a realtor wrote his name on the mapA real-estate man platted Edmore in 1878 and folded his own name into the town's; the sandy plains turned it into potato country, and the Potato Festival still runs every September.
- History and cultureGreenville's museum, where the Refrigerator Capital keeps its receiptsGreenville once called itself the Refrigerator Capital of the World, and the Flat River Historical Museum keeps the story — including refrigerators the laid-off workers signed.
- History and cultureHoward City: where two railroads crossedHoward City grew up around a railroad junction where the Grand Rapids & Indiana met a second line from the east, and it shared a union depot between them.
- History and cultureLakeview did exactly what its name saysA New York settler platted Lakeview in 1867 on the west bank of Tamarack Lake and named it for the view — a plain-description name in a state full of borrowed ones.
- History and cultureStanton was first called FredMontcalm County's seat sits in tiny Stanton because voters moved it to the county's center in 1860 — to a settlement first named Fred, renamed for Lincoln's war secretary.
- OutdoorsTamarack Lake has its own little governmentThe 330-acre all-sports lake at Lakeview is tended by a lake improvement board — the small, dull, county-organized body that keeps the weeds down and can show up on a lakefront tax bill.
- History and cultureThe college the county voted itself in 1965Montcalm Community College sits on College Drive near Sidney because county voters approved a college district in 1965 to put a two-year degree within reach without leaving home.
- History and cultureThe prison on Boyer RoadThe Carson City Correctional Facility opened in 1989 on Boyer Road and became one of the largest steady employers in a rural corner of Montcalm County.
- OutdoorsVestaburg State Game Area: 2,900 acres that belong to youRoughly 2,900 acres of public fields, brush, and wetland near Vestaburg, managed by the DNR for pheasant, turkey, rabbit, and deer — and open to anyone, hunter or not.
- History and cultureSheridan, named for a cavalry generalThe village of Sheridan honors Union cavalry general Philip Sheridan; it boomed on what was called some of Michigan's richest pine, and once made furniture and spark plugs.
- OutdoorsSix Lakes, named by countingThe community of Six Lakes sits in Belvidere Township beside a chain whose names run plainly from First Lake through Sixth Lake.
- History and cultureCedar Lake: a boarding school built a townThe tiny crossroads of Cedar Lake, east of Edmore, grew up around a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school founded in 1898 — now Great Lakes Adventist Academy on a 400-acre campus.
- History and cultureThe French general the county is named forMontcalm County is named for Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, the French general killed defending Quebec in 1759 — a man who never saw Michigan and died fighting the side that would later govern it.
- History and cultureFrom the Refrigerator Capital to the birthplace of MeijerGreenville's working history includes a century as the Refrigerator Capital of the World and the birthplace of Meijer.
- History and cultureThe Danish Festival CityGreenville's Danish Festival celebrates the Danish immigrant heritage that has shaped the city since the 1850s.
- History and cultureThe "Supercenter" — That Giant One-Stop Store — Was Invented in Grand RapidsMeijer pioneered the American supercenter in Grand Rapids in 1962 — the one-stop store that Walmart and others would later chase.
- Home and propertyNo city income tax in Montcalm CountyGreenville, Stanton, and Carson City levy no city income tax, but commuters to Grand Rapids or Ionia pay those cities' nonresident rates.
- OutdoorsThe Flat River and the Fred Meijer trailsGreenville and Edmore connect into the Fred Meijer trail network along the Flat River and north toward Alma.
- Home and propertyLake country: buying on the water in MontcalmLakefront buyers in Montcalm County should ask about lake boards, special assessments, lake levels, boat rules, and septic systems near the water.
- Home and propertyOut in the township, you're on a well and septicOutside Montcalm County's cities and village centers, township homes often use private wells and septic systems, and resale inspection is buyer-beware.
- Home and propertyWind energy: an active local issueNo wind farm operates in Montcalm County today, but recent proposals and state siting rules make wind energy worth asking about when buying rural land.
- OutdoorsNinety-two miles, no cars: the White Pine Trail townsThe Fred Meijer White Pine Trail runs 92 miles from Grand Rapids' edge to Cadillac, giving a string of small towns a linear state park for a main street.
- Money and taxesLive in a Michigan village? You pay an extra layer of property taxMichigan village residents usually pay village property taxes on top of township taxes, so the village boundary can change a buyer's total rate.
- 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.