County note shelf
Tuscola County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Tuscola County. This shelf has 9 practical notes and 23 local stories.
32 notes
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- Outdoors 3,400 acres of game country that hunters paid for The Vassar State Game Area covers about 3,400 acres of woods and Cass River bottomland — nearly all of it bought with hunters' own dollars, from license fees and a federal tax on firearms.
- Outdoors A 37-mile paddle that earned a state designation The Cass River Water Trail runs about 37.5 miles from above Vassar down to the Saginaw River, with rapids near Vassar and roughly 13 launch sites, and is a state-designated Pure Michigan Water Trail.
- History and culture A little fieldstone bank that's now the town's museum Millington's 1890s bank, built of split fieldstone in a town of brick and frame, outlived the bank itself and now houses the Millington-Arbela Historical Society's museum.
- Outdoors A lumber-camp dam that became a 2,500-acre hunting ground Murphy Lake near Millington was widened in the 1850s by a dam built to float logs; today the state game area around it spreads across roughly 2,500 acres of woods, marsh, and small lakes.
- History and culture A town the railroad renamed, beside a village the Germans built Denmark Township's first settlers were German Lutherans who founded Richville; a few miles off, a settlement first platted as Gates got renamed Reese in 1873 for a railroad superintendent.
- History and culture Akron made cheese boxes before it made much else Akron didn't become a village until a railroad arrived in 1882; the new town platted that year came with sawmills and a cheese-box factory, the kind of small industry that followed Thumb dairy farms.
- History and culture An eight-sided farmhouse a retired carpenter built for himself Near Mayville, William Randall built a rare eight-sided house in 1870, following a fad that claimed octagon homes were healthier — and it still stands, on the National Register.
- History and culture Caro's state hospital began as a farm colony for epilepsy The Caro Center opened in 1914 as Michigan's only home for people with epilepsy — a working farm where patients grew their own food — and ran for a century until a new hospital replaced it.
- History and culture Cass City, the Cass River, and the man behind both names Cass City and the river that runs past it both carry the name of Lewis Cass — the territorial governor who opened up early Michigan and nearly became president.
- History and culture Fairgrove crowns a Bean Queen and ladles out free soup Every Labor Day weekend the village of Fairgrove throws the Michigan Bean Festival, one of the state's longest-running festivals — built entirely around the dry bean that the Thumb grows by the truckload.
- History and culture Mayville saved its old depot, then filled it with the town's memory When Mayville's railroad depot faced demolition in 1986, residents moved it instead — and turned the old station into a museum of local history, obituaries, and a one-room schoolhouse cabin.
- Rules and licenses Most of Reese is in Tuscola County — but not quite all of it The village of Reese sits almost entirely in Tuscola County's Denmark Township, with a small sliver crossing into Saginaw County — a county line that can matter for where official paperwork goes.
- History and culture The Cass City plant that puts fuel in engines worldwide Walbro, a global maker of carburetors and fuel systems for everything from chainsaws to outboards, has run its operations out of small-town Cass City since 1954.
- History and culture The man who paddled the county records to Caro Indian Dave, one of the last Chippewa to live the old way in Tuscola County, helped settle an 1866 county-seat fight by canoeing the county records to Caro; he is buried at Wisner Township Cemetery.
- History and culture The railroad that reached up into the Thumb made Kingston Kingston, a small farm village in southern Tuscola County, grew up on the Pontiac, Oxford & Northern railroad — the same line, later part of the Grand Trunk, that opened the Thumb's interior.
- History and culture The store, the town hall, and the museum are all the same building Aaron Watrous logged the Cass River valley, platted Watrousville in 1860, and built a general store that later served as the township hall and now holds the local museum.
- History and culture The Thumb town named for Cairo, Egypt — sort of Caro, the seat of Tuscola County, was once plain old Centerville — until 1869, when town leaders borrowed a clipped spelling of Cairo, Egypt.
- History and culture Tuscola is a made-up word — and so are a dozen Michigan counties The name Tuscola wasn't an old Native place-name handed down by settlers. Henry Schoolcraft invented it in 1840, blending Ojibwe and Latin scraps into a word meaning, roughly, 'level cultivated land.'
- History and culture Two brothers from Canada, and the county's first Catholic church Gagetown grew where five roads met, platted in 1871 by a Canadian homesteader named Joseph Gage — and it's home to St. Agatha, the first Catholic parish in Tuscola County.
- History and culture Caro's 1899 sugarbeet factory is still setting records Caro's Michigan Sugar factory has sliced beets since 1899, and the company says it is the oldest operating sugarbeet factory in the United States.
- History and culture A logging town named for a college founder Vassar grew up on Cass River logging and shares its namesake with Vassar College founder Matthew Vassar.
- History and culture A sugar-beet town since 1899 Caro's operating sugar factory, Tuscola County Fair, and row-crop economy keep its sugar-beet heritage visible.
- History and culture The Thumb's eight-sided barn Near Gagetown, the restored Thumb Octagon Barn preserves an eight-sided 1924 barn and a working farm museum.
- History and culture Vassar, the Cork Pine City — named for a college founder who never lived here Vassar took its name from Matthew Vassar of Vassar College fame and its nickname from the towering 'cork pine' that floated down the Cass River.
- Home and property Lake levels and building near the water Tuscola County's level-controlled lakes and county drains make lake-level assessments and Drain Commissioner checks worth asking about before buying or building near water.
- Home and property The Cass River, and Vassar's flood history The Cass River runs through Caro and Vassar, where flood history makes mapped flood zones and insurance worth checking before buying.
- Home and property Wind country — turbines, leases, and who decides In Michigan's Thumb, wind turbines can affect rural land value, leases, views, local zoning, and state siting decisions.
- Home and property Out in the county, you're on a well and septic — under local rules Rural Tuscola County homes usually rely on private wells and septic systems under local county rules, with buyer-requested checks before closing.
- 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.
- History and culture The Thumb feeds America its beans Michigan's Thumb is the nation's powerhouse for navy and black beans, and Tuscola County farmland is at the heart of it.
- 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.