County note shelf
Oceana County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Oceana County. This shelf has 6 practical notes and 15 local stories.
21 notes
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- Outdoors Little Sable Point: the bare brick light below the dunes South of the Silver Lake dunes, the 1874 Little Sable Point Lighthouse rises more than 100 feet of unpainted red brick and still shines its original Paris-made Fresnel lens.
- Rules and licenses Renting your Pentwater cottage by the week? You need a license on the door The Village of Pentwater requires a yearly short-term rental license that must hang by the front door, caps occupancy, bans camping on the lot, and can be pulled after three violations.
- Outdoors Charles Mears State Park: a daughter's gift of beach The Lake Michigan beach park at Pentwater began in 1920 when Carrie Mears deeded her late father's shoreline to the state — named for the lumberman who dug the channel beside it.
- History and culture John Gurney Park: a soldier's memorial that became a lakeside campground Hart's lakeside park honors a young West Point officer killed in Cuba in 1898; his parents gave the land, and a 1914 stone arch still marks the entrance to what became an auto tourist camp.
- History and culture Mac Wood's: the dune ride that started with a failed farm A failed sand farm near Silver Lake turned into Mac Wood's Dune Rides, running tourists over the dunes since 1930 — still in the family, still the only ride permitted on the sand.
- History and culture Crystal Valley: named in a blacksmith's shop for the clear creeks Crystal Township took shape around Jared Gay's 1861 blacksmith shop, and his wife Catherine named it for the clear streams running through it — the first town meeting was held in that very shop.
- History and culture Walkerville and the little three-foot railroad Walkerville sat at the busy end of the Mason and Oceana, a narrow three-foot logging railroad that hauled the county's timber to a Ludington sawmill from 1887 until the trains stopped in 1909.
- History and culture Hart and the asparagus capital of the world Hart celebrates Oceana County's asparagus country with the National Asparagus Festival each June.
- Money and taxes Hart has no city income tax Hart is the only city in Oceana County, and it does not levy a local city income tax.
- Outdoors Michigan's first rail-trail Hart is the northern end of the William Field Memorial Hart-Montague Trail, Michigan's first paved rail-trail.
- History and culture Pentwater, the harbor village Pentwater grew from Charles Mears' lumber harbor into a walkable Lake Michigan resort village at the channel from Pentwater Lake.
- History and culture Rothbury and the Electric Forest Rothbury is the quiet Oceana County village beside the Double JJ Resort, where Electric Forest brings tens of thousands of festivalgoers each June.
- Outdoors The Silver Lake sand dunes Silver Lake State Park in Golden Township is the only place east of the Mississippi where the public can drive private vehicles on open sand dunes.
- History and culture The town that grew gemstones Shelby was home to the Shelby Gem Factory, where synthetic gemstones were grown, cut, and shipped around the world for half a century.
- Outdoors New Era's farm country New Era sits beside Oceana County farm-country destinations like Lewis Adventure Farm & Zoo and Country Dairy.
- Outdoors Asparagus and Its Queen: The Pride of Oceana County Oceana County calls itself the Asparagus Capital of the World, with the crop, the hand-harvest, and the queen to back it up.
- Outdoors Michigan's six scramble areas (and the Silver Lake rulebook) The open-riding playgrounds of Michigan off-roading — Silver Lake's dunes, Holly Oaks, The Mounds, St. Helen, Bull Gap, and Black Lake — and the extra rules each one layers on.
- Home and property Wells, septic, and the rules out here Oceana County township buyers usually need to check private wells and septic systems themselves because there is no point-of-sale inspection rule here.
- Outdoors Dune buggies and asparagus: Oceana's unlikely double crown Oceana County has Michigan's only drive-on dunes at Silver Lake and calls itself the Asparagus Capital — celebrated each June at Hart's National Asparagus Festival.
- 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.