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 culture How Schoolcraft County got its name Schoolcraft 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.
- Outdoors Indian Lake, the UP's big friendly lake Just 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 taxes Is 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.
- Outdoors Kitch-iti-kipi, the Big Spring A few miles northwest of Manistique lies Kitch-iti-kipi, Michigan's largest freshwater spring -- two hundred feet of emerald water you cross on a hand-pulled raft, and it never freezes.
- History and culture Manistique's lumber days, and the bridge that floats Manistique 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 culture Seul Choix Point Lighthouse South of Gulliver, the 1895 Seul Choix Point Lighthouse -- French for 'only choice' -- still guards Lake Michigan, with a museum, tower tours, and a famously spooky reputation.
- Outdoors The 'Mirror of Heaven' — and the Shopkeeper Who Made Up Its Legends Michigan's largest natural spring is so clear you can watch trout drift 40 feet down — and its romantic 'Ojibwe legends' were dreamed up by a five-and-dime owner to draw tourists.
- History and culture The Lighthouse Keeper Who Never Checked Out Seul Choix Pointe Lighthouse near Gulliver is said to be haunted by keeper Joseph Townshend, whose cigar smoke still drifts through the keeper's quarters.
- Outdoors The Seney National Wildlife Refuge More 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.
- Outdoors The Dwarf Lake Iris Michigan'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 property What to know about well and septic in Schoolcraft County Outside 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 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.