Bet You Didn’t Know!

April 22, 2016

Fun Facts About Boyne and Charlevoix

• Charlevoix’s Weathervane restaurant is a renovated 1800s grist mill and its bar is said to have been constructed with planks retrieved from a shipwreck.

• Boyne Falls was named by “Uncle” John Miller, the first settler near a stream that emptied into Pine Lake (now known as Lake Charlevoix).

• The East Jordan Iron Works was founded in East Jordan in 1883 and still runs today, manufacturing products for companies in more than 150 countries around the world.

• Local pub/restaurant The Boyne River Inn, locally nicknamed The BRI, has been operating in the same location since 1893.

• Boyne City’s elevation is 594 feet above sea level, as is Charlevoix’s; East Jordan’s elevation is 646 feet and Boyne Falls is at 712 feet.

• The Boyne Mountain ski resort was founded in 1947 by Everett Kirche, a former Studebaker car dealer who bought the land for $1 from a local resident.

• John and Harriet Miller, said to be Boyne City’s earliest settlers, were reportedly led to the area by a dream Harriet had in the mid- 1880s of a cabin on a bear-shaped lake. John Miller named the river leading to that lake (Lake Charlevoix) after one in Ireland: the Boyne River.

• Also on Boyne’s Water Street is a building that housed Bergy Brothers Dry Goods, founded in 1907; the large bazaar offered an assortment of “china, toilet articles, stationery, confectionary, souvenirs, pocket cutlery” and more, including a massive selection of postcards.

• Notable people born in Boyne City include musician/actress Britta Phillips, of the rock band Luna and the ‘80s animated series Jem, and chemist Marshall D. Gates, Jr. Charlevoix was the birthplace of Nancy Talbot who founded the Talbots retail clothing chain.

• The giant, prehistoric “armor-plated” stonefly from the genus Pteronarcys has been found along the Boyne River.

• A converted lumber barge named Keuka used to ply the waters between Boyne City and Charlevoix during prohibition, serving as a speakeasy until some nefarious events (and the pressure of the U.S. Treasury Department) forced the Keuka’s owner to scuttle the vessel in Lake Charlevoix.

• At the peak of Boyne City’s logging/industrial days, three sawmills operated along the lakefront, 13 locomotives served the area on 90 miles of track, and the population was 7,000, about twice its current size.

• Charlevoix was the location of Michigan’s first nuclear power plant, Big Rock Point, which operated from 1962 to 1997.

• L.A. singersongwriter Joe Henry wrote a song called “Charlevoix” for his 1990 album Shuffletown; Henry is married to Madonna’s sister, Melanie Ciccone, and cowrote Maddie’s song “Don’t Tell Me.”

• Charlevoix was once a popular destination for wood-powered steamships and lake-going passenger liners, including the “North American,” the “Milwaukee Clipper,” the “Alabama” and the “Manitou.”

• Boyne City’s Odd Fellow Hall on Water Street hosted boxing matches and shows in the early 1900s; magician Harry Houdini was one famous act that performed there.

• Charlevoix was a one-stoplight town until the 1980s when it finally got its second light at the intersection of US-31 and M-66.

• The Ironton Ferry is a cable ferryboat running between the village of Ironton and Boyne City. Once pulled by horses, today it can take four cars across at a time.

• There are plenty of tales, both proven and questioned, involving Ernest Hemingway writing, eating, vacationing and sleeping in various locales around northern Michigan, but he definitely got his marriage certificate in Charlevoix; the signed copy is on display in the Harsha House Museum.

• In 1918, Albert Loeb built an experimental farm on the outskirts of Charlevoix that sold prizewinning cattle through the Sears catalog. Today, that property is Castle Farms, a tourist attraction originally designed as a medieval castle, which once hosted large rock concerts and, today, is an event venue with spectacular gardens.