In the 1960s, the Medusa corporation decided to build their first greenfield cement plant. they build a cement plant in Charlevoix that came on line in 1967. The plant is located south of town off of US 31 near Fisherman's Island State Park. In the late 1970s, Crane Company took over Medusa and began consolidating operations. This not only resulted in modernization and investment in the Charlevoix plant, but personnel (and their families) from other Crane cement holdings were transferred into the Charlevoix area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/medusa-corporation-history/. 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. Until 2013 the cement plant was a frequent port of call for the oldest freighter on the great lakes, "SS St. Marys Challenger".