County note shelf
Van Buren County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Van Buren County. This shelf has 5 practical notes and 26 local stories.
31 notes
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- History and cultureLawton: the grape town Prohibition couldn't breakWelch's opened a grape juice plant in Lawton in 1919, the same year Prohibition arrived — and more than a century later it still presses local Concord grapes a few blocks off the main drag.
- History and cultureThe South Haven farmhouse that raised the father of modern horticultureLiberty Hyde Bailey, the man who taught universities to take garden plants seriously, was born in a small frame house outside South Haven in 1858 — and that house is now a museum and garden.
- OutdoorsWolf Lake hatchery: where six-foot sturgeon live near MattawanThe state fish hatchery west of Mattawan has been raising Great Lakes fish since 1927, and its free visitor center includes a show pond where lake sturgeon glide along the bottom.
- History and culturePaw Paw's name runs from fruit to river to villageThe village traces its name to the Paw Paw River, which local history says Indigenous people named for the native pawpaw fruit.
- Rules and licensesSouth Haven puts short-term rentals through zoning and licensingSouth Haven requires a short-term rental to clear zoning review, obtain a city license, and pass inspection; a new rental in the overlay district also needs special land-use approval.
- History and cultureSouth Haven's tall ship fought in the War of 1812The Michigan Maritime Museum on South Haven's Black River sails a replica sloop, Friends Good Will, whose namesake was captured, recaptured, and named in Oliver Perry's famous victory dispatch.
- History and cultureBangor's depot and the daily train to ChicagoBangor's restored 1926 brick depot is a working Amtrak stop on the Pere Marquette line — one train a day each way between Grand Rapids and Chicago.
- History and cultureDecatur: named for a naval hero, where the county startedDecatur honors War of 1812 naval hero Stephen Decatur, and its township holds the 1829 cabin site of Dolphin Morris, Van Buren County's first recorded settler.
- History and cultureGobles: a town the railroad put on the mapGobles grew up around the Kalamazoo and South Haven Railroad in the 1870s and took its name from the Goble family, who platted the village as Gobleville.
- History and cultureLawrence's Ox Roast: free beef since 1921Every Labor Day the village of Lawrence roasts beef and hands out the sandwiches free — a giveaway that started in 1921 and was revived in 1985 for the village's 150th.
- OutdoorsMaple Lake was built on purposeThe lake in the middle of Paw Paw isn't natural — the village made it in 1907 by damming the Paw Paw River for hydroelectric power.
- History and cultureThe county museum that used to be the poorhouseVan Buren County's history museum fills the 1884 brick building on Red Arrow Highway in Hartford that served as the county poorhouse and farm until 1952.
- OutdoorsThe old rail line you can now walk: Van Buren TrailVan Buren Trail State Park is a 14-mile path on a former railroad bed from South Haven to Hartford, running through farms and blueberry fields.
- OutdoorsVan Buren State Park: dunes and a mile of beach south of South HavenA 400-acre state park on Lake Michigan a few miles south of South Haven, with forested freshwater dunes, a mile of sand beach, and a big campground.
- History and cultureWhy so many roads through here are called 'Territorial'The Territorial Road through Paw Paw was one of Michigan's first east-west pioneer routes, approved in 1829 to run from Detroit west toward Lake Michigan.
- History and cultureThe red tower at the end of the South Haven pierSouth Haven's red pierhead lighthouse has marked the Black River since 1872, and its original keeper's catwalk is one of only four still standing in Michigan.
- History and cultureBloomingdale's 1870 depot beside the Kal-Haven TrailVan Buren County calls Bloomingdale's 1870 station the only original depot on the Kal-Haven route. The county currently marks the museum temporarily closed.
- History and cultureHartford throws a whole festival for the strawberryEvery June since 1988, Hartford has filled its downtown with a parade, a carnival, and a great deal of locally grown fruit for the Hartford Strawberry Festival.
- History and cultureThe county fair that's older than the county fairgroundsVan Buren County has held a fair of some kind since 1851; today's Van Buren Youth Fair runs on land in Hartford that was once the county poor farm.
- History and cultureWhy the old highway through here is called Red ArrowRed Arrow Highway, the two-lane that strings together Van Buren's fruit-belt towns, is the old route of US-12 — named for the 32nd 'Red Arrow' Division of Michigan and Wisconsin National Guardsmen.
- History and cultureCovert: the township that integrated America a century earlyBeginning in the 1860s, Covert Township's Black and white settlers built a fully integrated community — schools, ballots, and public office — decades ahead of the nation.
- History and cultureHow St. Julian Found Its Home in Paw PawSt. Julian began in Ontario in 1921 and settled in Paw Paw in 1936; nearby Warner gives the village a second long-running winery.
- History and cultureSouth Haven: beaches, blueberries, and the maritime coastSouth Haven is known for Lake Michigan beaches, blueberries, the Michigan Maritime Museum, and Liberty Hyde Bailey's hometown history.
- History and cultureFour Winds Casino in HartfordFour Winds Hartford is a Pokagon Band casino and entertainment venue just off I-94 in the Hartford area.
- Home and propertyLiving near the Palisades nuclear plantHomes around Covert and South Haven may sit inside the Palisades Nuclear Plant emergency planning zone while the plant is being brought back into service.
- OutdoorsThe Kal-Haven TrailThe Kal-Haven Trail is a 34-mile rail-trail between Kalamazoo and South Haven, with Bloomingdale at its midpoint.
- Home and propertyBuilding near the Lake Michigan shoreline and on the dunesLake Michigan shoreline and dune properties can be affected by Michigan critical-dune and high-risk-erosion-area permits.
- History and cultureWhy vineyards cluster along Michigan's southwest shoreThe Lake Michigan Shore wine region covers all of Berrien and Van Buren counties, where Lake Michigan moderates the climate without erasing winter risk.
- History and cultureBlueberries, peaches, and the lake that makes them possibleSouthwest Michigan's fruit belt grows a huge share of America's blueberries — South Haven calls itself the Blueberry Capital of the World and has thrown a festival since 1963.
- 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.