History of Charlevoix, Michigan
Charlevoix is named after Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, a French explorer who travelled the Great Lakes and was that to have stayed the night on Fisherman's Island one night during a harsh storm. It was during this time that Native Americans were thought to have lived in the Pine River valley.
Soon after its formation in the 1850s, Charlevoix entered into a short lived conflict with Jesse Strang, leader and namesake of the Strangite Mormons, and then king of Beaver Island. Relations between Charlevoix residents and the Strangites were often tense. In 1853, a gunfight broke out between the two groups as the townspeople refused to hand over a man who was called for jury duty on the island, an event known locally as The Battle of Pine River. When Strang was assassinated on June 20, 1856, many believed residents from Charlevoix to be responsible.
Charlevoix was permanently settled in the post-Civil War era. In the 1880s, several professors from the University of Chicago formed the Chicago Club Summer Home association. It wasn't long before the city became known as a resort destination. With three summer associations (the Chicago Club, Sequanota Club, and the Belvedere Club), a number of extravagant summer hotels, including The Inn and The Beach, and with rail service at two train depots on the Pere Marquette Railway line, (one depot for the Belvedere Club on the south side of Round Lake and one on the north side near the Chicago Club), Charlevoix became known as one of the nation's finest summer communities.
Charlevoix was once a popular destination for many passenger liners, including the Manitou, Alabama, North American, South American, Milwaukee Clipper, Illinois, and others.
During Prohibition, Charlevoix became a popular place for gang members from the Chicago area. The Colonial Club, a restaurant and gambling joint on the city's north side became known as a popular place for the Midwest's most powerful and influential. John Koch, the club's owner, kept automobile license number "2", only second to the governor - a telling sign of his influence.
The converted lumber barge Keuka served as a blind pig and speakeasy and sailed nightly between Boyne City and Charlevoix, hosting its guests in relative comfort. A murder aboard the ship and the pressure of US Treasury Department surveillance, however, forced the owner to scuttle the vessel in Lake Charlevoix.
November 18, 1958, Charlevoix City Hall served as a makeshift morgue for the bodies of crewmen of the SS Carl D. Bradley after the lake freighter foundered in Lake Michigan during a severe storm. The USCGC Cutter Sundew, stationed at Charlevoix, was one of the first vessels to arrive at the search area and played a pivotal role in that night's rescue of the two surviving crewmen.
The City of Charlevoix suffered economically from the 1950s to the 1980s as the manufacturing base largely evaporated, the train lines to the city ceased operating, and the larger tourist hotels fell out of business, leaving many empty buildings. The city has recovered from this slump via many redevelopment projects that have improved the downtown area. The 1980s also brought many condominium developments in the area.
Charlevoix was home to Michigan's first nuclear power plant, Big Rock Point, which operated from 1962 to 1997.
Another major employer in the Charlevoix area has been the Medusa cement plant, located south of town off of US-31 near Fisherman's Island State Park. In the late 1990s the cement plant was bought out by Cemex, a transnational company from Mexico. In 2000 Cemex sold the plant to St Marys Cement Group. The cement plant is a frequent port of call for the oldest freighter on the great lakes, St. Marys Challenger.
After the 1996 murder of JonBenét Ramsey, who spent her summers in Charlevoix and had won a pageant in the town, Charlevoix became a regular haven for tabloid photographers, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Ramsey family. John Ramsey, JonBenet's father and husband of the late Patsy Ramsey, still resides in Charlevoix.
The infamous murderer Richard Loeb's family owned a summer estate in Charlevoix in the 1920s.