A Giant Weathervane Crowned by a Ship That "Came Home"

In the little lakeside town of Montague, on Michigan’s west coast, there’s a weathervane so big you could spot it from blocks away — and it spins in the wind just like the small ones on a barn roof. It stands 48 feet tall in a tidy little park, and many call it the largest weathervane in the world.

It’s certainly the largest in the United States, and it’s a real, working weathervane, with an arrow about 26 feet long that swings to point the wind. But the best part is what sits on top: a metal model of a sailing ship called the Ella Ellenwood — and that ship has a story worth telling.

The Ella Ellenwood was a 157-ton lumber schooner, built in 1869 and sailed out of Montague’s White Lake by a Norwegian-born captain named Thomas Flagstad. On October 1, 1901, loaded with lumber and bound for Milwaukee, she ran aground off the Wisconsin shore in heavy weather. The crew was rescued, but the ship and her cargo were lost to Lake Michigan.

Here’s the part that gives people chills. The following spring, a piece of the schooner’s wooden nameplate — the board reading “ELLENWOOD” — drifted all the way back across Lake Michigan and washed into the very channel of her home port. After everything, the Ella Ellenwood had found her way home.

So the giant weathervane isn’t just a roadside curiosity. It’s a quiet monument to Montague’s lumber-shipping days, and to one ship in particular. You can see the weathervane for free in Ellenwood Park, right downtown — and that original, well-traveled nameplate is on display nearby at Montague City Hall.