Stover Creek

Stover Creek begins its journey near Ferry Rd. in central Marion Township. From there, it flows through beautiful lowlands forested with cedars and firs, sometimes passing by tall sandy hills. About three miles later, the Creek begins to see the impacts of development around the City of Charlevoix. The trees disappear and the Creek flows through the Front 9 of the Belvedere Golf Course, creating a hazard for many a frustrated golfer. Next, the Creek flows through a short forested section before flowing under Marion Center Rd. and entering Charlevoix’s large Brookside Cemetery. Here, it passes through one Volunteer Stream Monitoring site which yields high quality scores for the stream. On the downstream side of the cemetery, just before M-66, there used to be an area with erosion problems before the streambanks were stabilized in the mid 2000’s.

From there the stream flows through a large perched culvert under M-66 and drops a few inches into a pool on the downstream side. Stover Creek then winds its way through a narrow, sandy ravine. This section of stream, on occasion, will virtually disappear during late summer. Known as a “losing stream”, the water infiltrates into the ground through its very sand soils and recharges the local groundwater. The Creek continues upstream of Ferry Rd. on the south side of Charlevoix before it empties into Lake Charlevoix. Portions of a small dam at the stream mouth, near Irish Boat Shop, remain from historic industrial use at the site. The dam is no longer functional and there is interest in removing it to improve stream hydrology and aquatic organism passage. (See October 13, 2017 article – Preliminary Engineering study completed for Stover Creek Dam)