County note shelf
Schoolcraft County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Schoolcraft County. This shelf has 4 practical notes and 9 local stories.
13 notes
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- History and cultureHow Schoolcraft County got its nameSchoolcraft County is named for Henry Schoolcraft, the explorer and Indian agent whose famous writings on the Ojibwe rested largely on the knowledge of his Ojibwe wife, the writer Jane Johnston Schoolcraft.
- OutdoorsIndian Lake, the UP's big friendly lakeJust west of Manistique spreads Indian Lake -- the fourth-largest inland lake in the Upper Peninsula, big, shallow, and warm, with a classic state park on its shores.
- Money and taxesIs there a city income tax in Manistique?Manistique charges no city income tax -- and no community in the entire Upper Peninsula does. The nearest one is Grayling, well over a hundred miles away.
- History and cultureManistique's lumber days, and the bridge that floatsManistique boomed on white pine -- a port town reachable only by water until 1888 -- and its lumber era left behind a lighthouse, a grand brick water tower, and a bridge that sits below the water beside it.
- History and cultureSeul Choix Point LighthouseSouth of Gulliver, the Seul Choix Point station dates to 1892 and its present light to 1895. The site pairs a working light with a museum and a local ghost story.
- OutdoorsVisiting G'chi-dikibi (Kitch-iti-kipi)Northwest of Manistique, Michigan's largest natural freshwater spring can be viewed from an accessible, self-propelled raft at Palms Book State Park.
- OutdoorsG'chi-dikibi (Kitch-iti-kipi), the Big SpringMichigan's largest natural freshwater spring is both a remarkable place to visit and a landscape with continuing significance to Great Lakes Anishinaabek.
- History and cultureThe ghost story at Seul Choix Point LighthouseThe 1895 Seul Choix Point Lighthouse has a well-known keeper ghost story. The history is documented; the cigar smoke and moving objects are local lore.
- OutdoorsThe Seney National Wildlife RefugeMore than 95,000 acres of marsh, bog, and forest make up the Seney National Wildlife Refuge -- a 1935 recovery story that's now one of the best places in Michigan to see swans, loons, and eagles.
- OutdoorsThe Dwarf Lake IrisMichigan's state wildflower is a tiny, vivid blue-violet iris that grows almost nowhere else on Earth — only along the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron.
- Home and propertyWhat to know about well and septic in Schoolcraft CountyOutside Manistique, most of Schoolcraft 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 -- so buyers should get their own.
- 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.