County note shelf
Ontonagon County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Ontonagon County. This shelf has 5 practical notes and 8 local stories.
13 notes
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- Outdoors Bond Falls, the U.P.'s postcard waterfall Near Paulding in southern Ontonagon County, the Ontonagon River spreads across a hundred feet of fractured rock to make Bond Falls -- one of the most photographed and easiest-to-reach waterfalls in the Upper Peninsula.
- History and culture How Ontonagon got its name -- and the copper boulder behind it Ontonagon is an Ojibwe name, carried by the river before the county. And on that river once sat the Ontonagon Boulder -- a sacred 3,700-pound chunk of pure copper, known to the Ojibwe for centuries, now in the Smithsonian.
- Money and taxes Is there a city income tax in Ontonagon? There's no city income tax in Ontonagon County -- and there couldn't easily be one, since the county's only incorporated community is the Village of Ontonagon. The nearest income tax is Grayling, well over two hundred miles away.
- Outdoors Lake Gogebic's quieter, northern half The Upper Peninsula's biggest inland lake, Lake Gogebic, reaches up into southwestern Ontonagon County -- where the village of Bergland sits on its northern shore, an hour and a time zone away from the lake's southern end.
- History and culture Old Victoria, the copper village frozen in time Near Rockland, a cluster of hand-hewn log cabins still stands where copper miners and their families lived a century ago -- one of the oldest log villages remaining on its original site in America, preserved by volunteers.
- Outdoors The Porcupine Mountains, Michigan's biggest wild park The 'Porkies' are Michigan's largest state park -- some sixty thousand acres of virgin forest, wild rivers, and Lake Superior shoreline, crowned by the unforgettable view over Lake of the Clouds.
- Outdoors One of North America's Biggest Old-Growth Forests Is Hiding in the U.P. The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park — Michigan's largest, at about 60,000 acres — holds roughly 35,000 acres of old-growth forest, often called the largest such tract between the Adirondacks and the Rockies.
- Outdoors Agate Falls Bond Falls' quieter sibling sits a few miles downstream on the same river — about forty feet of glittering water you can take in from a trail or an old railroad bridge above.
- Outdoors Bond Falls Many U.P. folks call Bond Falls the prettiest waterfall in Michigan after Tahquamenon — a hundred-foot-wide staircase of cascades you can stand right in the middle of.
- Home and property What to know about well and septic in Ontonagon County Almost all of Ontonagon County is on private well and septic. Michigan has no statewide septic code, and the local health department doesn't require an inspection when a property is sold -- though it offers one that some home loans and buyers ask for.
- Money and taxes Live in a Michigan village? You pay an extra layer of property tax Michigan 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 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.