History of The Weathervane | The Pointer Boat | How To Get Here

Much More Than A Mill

Before the turn of the century, local farmers delivered grain to a four-story grist mill operated at this site on the banks of the Pine River.

Schooners docked conveniently to load on the flour which was then transported to other harbors along the Great Lakes. During the post-war years, when men and materials were once more available for civilian projects, Charlevoix realtor Earl Young acquired the mill and transformed it into a restaurant. The top two floors were eliminated and the new roof was fashioned after the curve of a gull’s wing. The building was faced with limestone and trimmed with Onaway stone from the local quarry. Young filled it with nautical memorabilia, some of which can still be seen
throughout the restaurant today.

Characteristic of Young’s imaginative stone work is the glacial boulder fireplace built in the restaurant’s main dinning room. Found by Young in the Charlevoix area, the 9-ton key stone resembles the northern part of Michigan’s lower peninsula. The meteorite lying at the hearth is only a quarter of the keystone’s size, but it weighs about the same.

The main bar is constructed of shipwreck planks weighing over two tons. Illuminating the Weathervane’s entrance are 150-year old street lights imported by Young from Copenhagen. The circular stairwell to the lower level is another testimony to Young’s creativity. He designed an intimate room among massive timbers and boulders, then opened the room to the
outdoors, the channel and the Great Lakes beyond.

The "Weathervane Restaurant" became a Stafford's property in 1988, although it was not the first marriage of the company's founder and this particular business. In 1965 Stafford ran the Weathervane for Earl Young and although he expressed interest in buying it, the resources were not available to him. That changed in 1988 and Stafford's Weathervane remains one of the company's most profitable entities.