Stone houses seem to sprout as naturally as dandelions from the soil of this pleasant Lake Michigan resort community. For more than half a century Young has combed lonesome fields and dusty quarries searching for the odds and ends of nature. He blends stones and timber with an architect's skill and a geologist's respect for his raw material, and so far he has fitted more than 40 local landscapes with his art.
Stones have their own personalities.
People say I'm crazy when I say so, but they really do. Why I found a stone that weighed 160 tons. Young calls himself a realtor, but nearly all the people of Charlevoix consider him that and more. As he tells it he couldn't stomach the artistic conservatism of his professors, so he dropped out and never got his college degree. To me he's the opposite of Frank Lloyd Wright.