County note shelf
Newaygo County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Newaygo County. This shelf has 5 practical notes and 26 local stories.
31 notes
Read the county shelf
- History and culture Croton: the little dam that sent power farther than anyone had before When the Croton hydro plant on the Muskegon River switched on in 1907, its transmission line ran at higher voltage than any in the world, and engineers crossed oceans to see how it was done.
- Outdoors Below Croton Dam: the last free-flowing run of the Muskegon River From Croton Dam to the lake the Muskegon River runs undammed over gravel, and the cold, steady water Consumers Energy releases makes it one of Michigan's best rivers for steelhead and salmon.
- Outdoors Coolbough Natural Area: oak savanna kept alive for a thumbnail-sized butterfly A 400-acre preserve near Newaygo protects a rare oak savanna and the wild lupine that the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly needs to survive — the only plant its caterpillars will eat.
- History and culture Fremont's namesake never came here — he was off mapping the West Before Gerber, Fremont took its name from John C. Frémont, the explorer called the Pathfinder who mapped the Oregon Trail and became the first Republican to run for president.
- History and culture Grant: the onion capital that grew out of a drained marsh The black muck soil east of Grant, left behind when a 3,500-acre marsh was drained, grew so many onions that rail cars left town by the dozen and earned Grant a bold nickname.
- History and culture Hesperia: a White River village split clean down the county line The village of Hesperia sits astride the White River where Newaygo and Oceana counties meet, so half the town keeps its records in one county courthouse and half in another.
- History and culture White Cloud: how a railroad town on the White River won the courthouse White Cloud has been Newaygo County's seat of government for over a century, despite sitting north of the county's biggest towns — a quirk that traces back to the railroad.
- Outdoors Flowing Wells Park: free artesian water on the grave of a logging hamlet A small White Cloud park on the White River where artesian wells push cold spring water to the surface with no pump, on the site of a vanished timber community.
- History and culture Fremont's festival with an adult baby-food eating contest Every July, downtown Fremont throws a multi-day street party around the baby food its Gerber plant made famous — crawl races, a cook-off, and grown adults racing through jars of pureed peas.
- History and culture Grant: a town that borrowed a Civil War general's name from a railroad sign The Newaygo County city of Grant grew up around an 1882 sawmill and a depot the railroad labeled Grant Station — for Ulysses S. Grant, who never set foot in it.
- Outdoors Hess Lake: 755 acres, mostly knee-deep, full of fish A 755-acre natural lake straddling Brooks and Grant townships — shallow, weedy, warm, and one of the easiest places in Newaygo County to launch a boat and actually catch bass and bluegill.
- Outdoors Michigan's Dragon: a 45-mile trail that looks like a serpent on the map A 45-mile, natural-surface hiking and mountain-biking trail looping the shoreline of Hardy Dam Pond, named for the serpentine shape it traces across Newaygo and Mecosta counties.
- Outdoors Newaygo State Park: vault toilets, high banks, and a four-thousand-acre pond A no-frills 400-acre state park on the south shore of Hardy Dam Pond, where the campsites sit up on oak-covered banks above a six-mile reservoir.
- Money and taxes The 1951 Gerber-family fund that still pays for Newaygo County's trails and scholarships A Fremont charitable foundation, started in 1951 by local leaders including the Gerber family, whose invested gifts now fund grants and scholarships across all of Newaygo County.
- Outdoors The national forest that grew back on failed farmland north of White Cloud Much of northern Newaygo County, around Bitely and Lilley Township, is federal Manistee National Forest — land the loggers wrecked, the farmers gave up on, and the government replanted.
- History and culture The Newaygo museum that explains 200 vanished towns A downtown Newaygo museum that tells the county's story through the fur trade, the white-pine logging boom that spawned nearly 200 short-lived towns, and the rise of Gerber baby food.
- History and culture Where 'Newaygo' comes from — and why the answer is two answers The county's Ojibwe name traces back either to a chief who signed the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw or to a word tied to 'much water' — and the experts don't agree which.
- Outdoors Fremont Lake: 88 feet deep, right at the edge of town Fremont's namesake lake drops to nearly 90 feet within walking distance of downtown — a deep, cold-water lake unusual for this stretch of West Michigan, with a city park and beach on its shore.
- Outdoors The dam at Hesperia is a wall against an invader from the ocean The old mill dam at Hesperia does a quiet modern job: it blocks sea lamprey, an eel-like Atlantic invader, from reaching 80 miles of White River spawning stream upstream.
- History and culture Fremont: the home of Gerber baby food Fremont is the birthplace and headquarters of Gerber, the baby food company that grew from a local cannery into a national brand.
- Outdoors Loda Lake: the only wildflower sanctuary in a national forest Loda Lake is a national-forest wildflower sanctuary north of White Cloud, with an easy trail through woods, lake edge, and marsh.
- Outdoors Newaygo and the Muskegon River Newaygo grew up on the Muskegon River and is still one of the county's main gateways for tubing, paddling, fishing, and river parks.
- Outdoors White Cloud and the North Country Trail White Cloud is a North Country Trail town on the edge of the Manistee National Forest, with easy access to hiking, rivers, and lakes.
- History and culture The Gerber Baby Was a Real Person — and Her Name Was a Secret for 40 Years The chubby-cheeked Gerber baby was a real child — Ann Turner Cook — whose identity the company kept secret for about 40 years.
- History and culture The great dams of the Muskegon River Hardy and Croton dams turned the Muskegon River into a power source and still shape Newaygo County's river country.
- Money and taxes Good news on city income tax in Newaygo County Fremont, Grant, Newaygo, and White Cloud do not levy a city income tax, so Newaygo County has no local income tax on paychecks.
- History and culture The Ridge: where most of Michigan's apples grow The Fruit Ridge northwest of Grand Rapids — centered on Sparta — grows roughly six of every ten Michigan apples, with orchards, cider mills, and U-pick farms everywhere.
- Home and property Wells and septic in Newaygo County: what buyers should know Newaygo County does not require point-of-sale well and septic inspections, so rural buyers should make their own checks part of the offer.
- Outdoors Hardy Dam and the Muskegon River: Newaygo's water kingdom Newaygo County is built around the Muskegon River — Hardy Dam's 4,000-acre pond, canoe liveries, and trout water make it West Michigan's playground.
- 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.