About Charlevoix, Michigan (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Charlevoix is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 2,994. It is the county seat of Charlevoix County6.

Charlevoix Township is a separate governmental entity that completely surrounds the City and is the functional equivalent of its suburbs.

Typical of Northern Michigan towns, the city has a significant seasonal tourist population in the Summer.

Charlevoix is named after Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, a French explorer who travelled the great lakes. It is not known if he ever set foot near the current location. It is also thought that Native Americans lived in the Pine river valley at various times.

Charlevoix was settled in the post-Civil War era. Several professors from the University of Chicago formed the Belvedere Summer Home association. Eventually, the city became known as a tourist destination with a number of extravagant summer hotels. Charlevoix had 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 was home to Michigan's first nuclear power plant, Big Rock Point, which operated from 1962 to 1997.

Another major employer in the Richmond 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.

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