Castle Rock is for sale: $2.7 million buys the St. Ignace landmark, 64.5 acres, the gift shop and Paul Bunyan and Babe

ST. IGNACE — One of the most familiar stops on the way across the Upper Peninsula is up for sale, statues and all.

Castle Rock, the limestone stack that rises about 195 feet above Lake Huron just north of St. Ignace, is listed for $2.7 million by RE/MAX NorthStar Realty. The sale covers the rock, the business built around it and the land it sits on.

According to the listing, the package includes 64.5 acres of commercially zoned land with about 1,300 feet of road frontage, a 6,024-square-foot retail and storage building with a roof replaced in 2025, a pole barn, the store’s inventory, equipment and displays, and the roadside statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. A large paved lot handles RVs, buses and trailers.

The listing says the attraction draws about 75,000 visitors a year. It sits just off Interstate 75 at Exit 348, a few miles north of town.

Castle Rock has been in the Eby family since 1929, when Clarence and Helen Eby opened it to tourists, EUP News reported. Visitors climb an outdoor staircase, about 170 steps by the listing’s count, to a lookout with views of the Straits of Mackinac, Mackinac Island and the Mackinac Bridge. The climb costs a dollar.

Mark Eby, a co-owner who manages the attraction, is part of the family that bought the property, according to WBXX radio.

The rock is a sea stack left behind as the land around it wore away after the last Ice Age. It stands about 183 feet above the highway.

The attraction closed for the season on Monday, Oct. 19, after its 97th year, and it is expected to reopen in the spring. A real estate listing site that carries the regional MLS shows the property was first listed June 25, and the listing was updated as recently as Oct. 28.

At the asking price, the land works out to about $41,900 an acre, by The Mitten Daily’s math, though the price also covers a working business. The listing pitches the buyer on keeping the attraction going or adding to it, with room for more attractions, events or hospitality projects.

Whoever buys it, the listing calls it a chance that comes “once in a generation.”

Sources:
EUP News, “For $2.7 million, you could own Castle Rock,” Oct. 21, 2026 (RE/MAX NorthStar listing, Eby family since 1929, height, $1 climb, closed Oct. 19 after 97th year), https://www.eupnews.com/2026/10/for-2-7-million-you-could-own-castle-rock/
Century 21 Commercial listing, N2690 Castle Rock Rd., St. Ignace, MLS 26-558 (price, acreage, frontage, building, 2025 roof, statues, 75,000 visitors, 170 steps), https://commercial.century21.com/property/n2690-castle-rock-rd-st-ignace-mi-49781-REN036025650
Keller Williams EUP Realty IDX listing, MLS 26-558 (list date June 25, 2026; last modified Oct. 28, 2026; I-75 Exit 348), https://kweuprealty.com/idx/N2690-Castle-Rock-RD-St-Ignace-MI-49781-mls_26-558/
WBXX, “Castle Rock … Lists For $2.7 Million In Saint Ignace” (Mark Eby, spring reopening), https://wbxxfm.com/ixp/690/p/castle-rock-michigan-sale-price/
Photo: Kate Ter Haar, “Stop and climb Castle Rock in St. Ignace, Michigan (7617138048).jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stop_and_climb_Castle_Rock_in_St._Ignace,_Michigan_(7617138048).jpg

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Tags: St. Ignace · Castle Rock · Upper Peninsula · Mackinac County · Roadside Attractions · Real Estate