County note shelf
Saint Clair County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Saint Clair County. This shelf has 6 practical notes and 30 local stories.
36 notes
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- Money and taxesPort Huron's City Income Tax and Its Cross-Border CommutersPort Huron levies a local income tax that catches people who work in the city without living there, including some who commute over the Blue Water Bridge.
- OutdoorsAlgonac throws a party for a fishEvery summer the river town of Algonac fills its waterfront for the Lions Pickerel Tournament and Festival, an event built around the walleye the locals have always called pickerel.
- History and cultureCatholic Point: the wedge of land a priest bought for $82.33Where the Belle River meets the St. Clair at Marine City sits Catholic Point, a peninsula Father Gabriel Richard bought in 1824 on a grant signed by President John Quincy Adams.
- OutdoorsColumbus County Park: 411 acres of 'up north' an hour from DetroitTucked into rural Columbus Township, this 411-acre county park gives the Belle River a mile and a half of frontage and laces rolling woods and prairie with trails for bikes, boots, and horses.
- History and cultureEmmett, the Irish corner of St. Clair CountyFamine-era Irish Catholics settled the farmland around Emmett, named their township for the patriot Robert Emmet, and built the parish that became Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
- History and cultureHow a Michigan farm town ended up named YaleYale started life as Brockway Centre on Mill Creek; in 1889 the town traded that name for the prestige of an Ivy League college it had no connection to whatsoever.
- History and cultureMarysville changed its name because Michigan had a VicksburgVickery's Landing became Vicksburg, then changed to Marysville in 1859 because another Michigan community already used the Vicksburg name.
- History and culturePort Huron's ice museum, back when winter was the warehouseA downtown Port Huron museum gathered more than 10,000 saws, tongs, picks, and wagons from the lost trade of cutting lake ice in winter and selling it all summer.
- History and cultureSt. Clair sits on an ocean of saltA thousand feet under St. Clair lies the brine of an ancient sea, and in 1886 a new pressure process turned it into Diamond Crystal — a salt brand that ran here for over a century.
- History and cultureCapac's depot, bought for a dollar and dragged awayWhen the Grand Trunk Western depot at Capac was about to be lost, a historical society bought it for one dollar, hauled it down the road in two pieces, and made it a museum.
- OutdoorsLakeport State Park and its Depression-era beach houseLakeport State Park hands you more than a mile of Lake Huron shoreline in the Thumb, with a beach house and campground built by Civilian Conservation Corps crews in the 1930s.
- History and cultureMemphis, the little city split between two countiesMemphis sits squarely on the Macomb–St. Clair county line above the Belle River, named by settlers who saw their bluff over the water as a Michigan echo of Memphis on the Nile.
- History and cultureThe Huron, the last lightship on the Great LakesMoored at Port Huron's Pine Grove Park, Lightship No. 103 — the Huron — was the last floating lighthouse on the Great Lakes and is a National Historic Landmark.
- History and cultureThe St. Clair Inn, a 1926 Tudor on the riverBuilt in 1926 to give the powerboat capital of Michigan a hotel worthy of it, the half-timbered St. Clair Inn sat empty for years before a $40-million revival reopened it in 2019.
- OutdoorsAlgonac State Park's lakeplain prairieAlgonac State Park guards a stand of lakeplain prairie and oak savanna, two of the rarest habitats left in Michigan, on flat ground beside the St. Clair River.
- OutdoorsThe Mill Creek trestle on the Wadhams to Avoca TrailWest of Port Huron, a rail-trail crosses the Mill Creek valley on a 640-foot wooden trestle that once carried Pere Marquette trains sixty feet above the water.
- History and cultureThe rescued village at Goodells County ParkA log cabin, a one-room school, a country church and a farmhouse — all built in the 1800s and hauled to one spot at Goodells County Park to keep them from the wrecking ball.
- History and cultureThe tunnel under the river at Port HuronDug beneath the St. Clair River in 1891, the railroad bore between Port Huron and Sarnia was the first full-size tunnel ever driven under a river in North America.
- History and cultureAlgonac, the birthplace of Chris-CraftAlgonac is the birthplace of Chris-Craft and a cradle of American powerboating, with Christopher Columbus Smith and Gar Wood both tied to the river town.
- History and cultureFort Gratiot, Michigan's oldest lighthousePort Huron's Fort Gratiot Light is Michigan's oldest lighthouse, still marking the mouth of the St. Clair River.
- OutdoorsHarsens Island and the St. Clair FlatsHarsens Island in Clay Township sits in the St. Clair Flats, a remarkable freshwater delta of marshes, canals, wildlife, and freighter views.
- History and cultureMarine City, the town that built shipsMarine City was one of the great nineteenth-century wooden shipbuilding towns of the Great Lakes.
- History and cultureMarysville and the Wills Sainte ClaireMarysville was shaped by C. Harold Wills and the rare Wills Sainte Claire automobile.
- OutdoorsSt. Clair's riverfrontSt. Clair's riverfront offers Palmer Park's boardwalk, close-up freighter watching, and the restored St. Clair Inn.
- Cars and drivingThe Blue Water BridgeThe Blue Water Bridge is Port Huron's landmark international crossing to Canada, with twin spans over the St. Clair River.
- OutdoorsThe Port Huron to Mackinac sailboat raceEvery July, Port Huron hosts the start of the Bayview Mackinac Race and its Boat Week celebration.
- History and cultureThomas Edison grew up hereThomas Edison spent his boyhood in Port Huron, selling newspapers on the railroad and experimenting in a baggage car.
- History and cultureYale, the Bologna CapitalYale is known as the Bologna Capital, thanks to C. Roy's Yale Bologna and the town's annual festival.
- History and cultureMichigan Has More Lighthouses Than Any Other StateMichigan's Coastal Management Program counted 129 lighthouses in 2026, the most of any state. Not every one is open for a tower climb.
- OutdoorsHarsens Island sits in the country's largest freshwater deltaHarsens Island is reached by car ferry and includes a 3,355-acre DNR waterfowl area within the country's largest freshwater delta.
- Money and taxesCity income tax in St. Clair CountyPort Huron levies a city income tax, while St. Clair County's other St.-Clair-only cities do not.
- Home and propertyWells, septic, and what to check before you buySt. Clair County township buyers should check private wells and septic systems themselves because there is no automatic point-of-sale inspection rule.
- History and cultureWhere to watch freighters on the St. Clair RiverFreighters pass close to shore beneath the Blue Water Bridge, and Port Huron hosts Boat Week before the annual Bayview Mackinac race.
- 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.