Michigan Porch

Clare County, Michigan

Use this county page to find the right government office or narrow down to a city or township. The service directory covers common county jobs; the local pages add property-tax context, school-district rate ranges, nearby places, and Porch Notes tied to each community.

County snapshot

Cities

2

Townships

16

School districts

8

Primary home (PRE) rates, for homes with Michigan's Principal Residence Exemption, range from 19.7173 mills to 43.337 mills.

Other property, often called non-homestead, usually means rentals, vacation homes, and second homes. Those rates range from 37.5139 mills to 61.337 mills.

Rate rows come from the official Michigan Treasury millage-rate reports . Data used: 2025 Michigan Treasury Total Property Tax Rates. Last reviewed July 12, 2026.

Use this carefully: Michigan Porch uses the statewide published rates as a planning aid. The local assessor or treasurer controls parcel-specific values, due dates, and special assessments.

County service directory

Find the office before you make the trip

Some questions stay with the city or township. Others move to the county, a health district, or a court. Start with the job you need done, then confirm hours, fees, and forms with the office.

Official Clare County website

County websites are checked against the State of Michigan county website directory . State and court finders are used where one office or district can serve more than one county. Directory reviewed July 12, 2026. Office roles were checked against Michigan Vital Records, Michigan Treasury taxpayer resources, and State Tax Commission guidance.

Local pages

Places in Clare County

Back to places

Porch Notes

Local notes from Clare County

Stories, practical notes, and local details tied to places in this county.

Clare County · History and culture

The Doherty Hotel and the night the oil money came due

Clare's Doherty Hotel, open since 1924, was a Prohibition-era haunt of the Detroit Purple Gang — and the spot where an oil baron was shot dead at the bar in 1938.

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Clare County · History and culture

Spikehorn's wildlife park at the Harrison crossroads

John 'Spikehorn' Meyer ran a roadside wildlife park south of Harrison where visitors were invited to feed, pet, and even 'shake hands' with black bears.

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Clare County · Outdoors

The stone beach house the CCC built on Budd Lake

Wilson State Park sits on 36 wooded acres at the north end of Budd Lake in Harrison, on the old Wilson Brothers sawmill site, with a stone-and-wood beach house built by Depression-era CCC crews.

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Clare County · History and culture

What Lake George's logging railroad was actually first at

Winfield Scott Gerrish's 1877 line was Michigan's first common-carrier logging railroad, not the state's first railroad built to haul logs.

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Clare County · History and culture

When oil came up under Clare and the mob came with it

In the early 1930s Clare sat at the edge of a central-Michigan oil boom, and the mob-backed Mammoth Producing & Refining Company grew into one of the biggest independent oil producers east of the Mississippi.

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Clare County · Outdoors

Snow Snake: a ski hill and a golf course on the same Harrison ground

Snow Snake Ski & Golf in Harrison runs a 210-foot ski hill with a dozen trails and two terrain parks in winter, then turns the same rolling, wooded ground into an 18-hole golf course.

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Browse all 19 Clare County notes →

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What to check next in Clare County

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