Mountain Grand Lodge and Spa - Everett's

Everett Kircher was the patriarch of the family that owns Boyne USA. Everett was born on July 15, 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri. Before Everett turned 1 year old his father had moved the family to Detroit to start earning $5 /day at the Ford factory. Everett went back and visited his family in Missouri throughout his childhood, learning to hunt and fish with his great uncles. Everett attended the University of Michigan until his mother was gravely injured and he went home to help run the family business, a Studebaker dealership. In 1948 he founded Boyne Ski Club with $1 investment in 40 acres of real estate from Senator Pearson.

The restaurant in front of you was named after Everett and holds many of his prized possessions. Let’s start the tour with the fish tank. Take a look in the fish tank that is part of the wall of Everett’s Restaurant – it contains brook and brown Trout, two of Everett’s favorite local catches. If you take the part of the walk to the Boyne River you will see where these swimmers live and where Everett fished.

The brook trout is a small fish native to the Boyne River. They range from 6 to 9 inches in length and thrive in the cold, northern waters of Michigan. Brook trout naturally reproduce in the north and south branches of the Boyne River, and are typically only found above the dam. The temperature of the water below the dam gets a little too warm in the summer for the brookies. The brown trout is a cold-water fish native to Asia and Europe, and they were first introduced to Michigan in 1883. They are not as sensitive to warmer waters as brook trout. Brown trout can be found throughout all of the Boyne River and they are sometimes stocked below the dam. The average size brown trout that our Outfitters catch in the Boyne is 8-12 inches.

📸 Attached Media:

-Photos of Everett from the Boyne Mountain Resort Archives

-Photo of Everett from the US Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame

-Article about Everett fishing in Norway, "Everett Kircher with his record 46-Pound Atlantic Salmon" by the Harbor Light on August 27, 1969

-Photo of Everett from Sports Illustrated on November 20, 1961

🏃 Walk past the front desk and out the back doors of the lobby. Turn around and look at the Mountain Grand Lodge and Spa. This is where the original Boyne Mountain Parking Lot was located.

📚 Bibliography: β Δ ♥