The Weathervane and the Nine-Ton Boulder

Right on the Pine River Channel sits a restaurant that is really one more of Earl Young's stone dreams, the Weathervane. Young built it in the early nineteen fifties, though sources differ on the exact dates, and as always he let the boulders decide the shape. The showstopper is inside.

The great fireplace in the main dining room is crowned by a single enormous glacial boulder weighing about eighteen thousand two hundred and sixty pounds, which comes out to a little over nine tons. Young had discovered that very rock more than twenty-five years earlier and waited a full quarter century for the right building to use it in. Local lore says he loved it because its outline reminded him of the shape of Michigan's lower peninsula, with pale veins running across its face like highways on a map.

Setting a nine-ton stone was no small feat. The story goes that the first time the boulder was lowered into place, the floor actually sank under the weight, and the builders had to tear up the foundation and reinforce it before the fireplace could stand. Order a meal by that fireplace and you are dining under one of the heaviest pieces of art in Northern Michigan.