County note shelf
Ogemaw County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Ogemaw County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 12 local stories.
16 notes
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- Outdoors Ambrose Lake: a hand-pump well and 25 sites in the state forest Eleven miles north of West Branch, Ambrose Lake State Forest Campground offers 25 rustic sites on a quiet lake, with vault toilets, a hand-pumped well, and trails close by.
- Outdoors Ogemaw Hills Pathway: hiking a glacier's leftovers The 15-mile Ogemaw Hills Pathway north of West Branch winds over the West Branch Moraine, a ridge of hills bulldozed up by the Saginaw Lobe of the last ice sheet.
- History and culture Ogemaw Springs: the town that lost the county seat by one vote Ogemaw Springs was the county's first lumber settlement and nearly its seat of government, losing to West Branch in 1876 by a single vote before fading to a township park around its spring.
- History and culture Ogemaw: a county named for a chief who spoke up to Lewis Cass Ogemaw County takes its name from the Anishinaabe word for chief, by way of Ogemaw-ge-gato, a Chippewa orator who argued against ceding Michigan land to territorial governor Lewis Cass.
- History and culture The hour that burned down Rose City On an April morning in 1910, fire tore through Rose City's wooden business district in under an hour, leveling thirty buildings and ending its run as a lumber boomtown.
- Cars and driving West Branch's smiley-face water tower, grinning at I-75 A bright yellow smiley face painted on the West Branch water tower has greeted I-75 drivers for decades and earned the town its motto, the City with a Smile.
- History and culture West Branch's Victorian Art Fair, in a park named for an old family Each August, West Branch fills Irons Park with hundreds of artists for the Victorian Art Fair, a free, period-themed festival tied to the town's preserved Victorian downtown.
- History and culture Rose City: a little lumber town turned trail town Rose City grew from a lumber settlement into a small trail town near the Rifle River Recreation Area.
- History and culture West Branch: the county seat and I-75 stopover West Branch is Ogemaw County's county seat, I-75 stopover, and practical shopping and services hub.
- Money and taxes Good news on city income tax in West Branch and Rose City West Branch and Rose City charge no city income tax; the nearest city that does is Grayling, about 45 miles up I-75.
- Outdoors The Rifle River Recreation Area, in your backyard The Rifle River Recreation Area gives the Lupton and Rose City area a major state-park backyard.
- Outdoors The White-Tailed Deer No symbol shapes the Michigan calendar like the white-tailed deer — state game mammal since 1997, and the reason much of the state pauses for two weeks each November.
- Outdoors Trails, forest, and lakes: Ogemaw's outdoor life Rural Ogemaw County is shaped by state forest, ORV and snowmobile trails, small lakes, and outdoor access.
- Home and property Well and septic in rural Ogemaw County Most Ogemaw County township homes use private wells and septic systems, and buyers should inspect them before closing.
- 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.