Our Story
Beach walks, Petoskey stones,
and what my mother called Indian beads.
My love affair with stone started before I understood what it was.
My mother would take me to the beaches of Lake Michigan looking for Petoskey stones — the fossilized coral that Michigan is known for — and what she called Indian beads. Any interesting stone we found, we took home and polished. I did not know then that I was learning to see stone. I just knew I liked it.
I am a fourth-generation mason. My dad passed the masonry trade on to me. That lineage is not a marketing detail — it is the reason I approach this work the way I do. I grew up watching people who understood that masonry done right is permanent, and that permanence is the whole point. A wall laid well is still standing when the person who laid it is long gone. That is not a small thing.
I started cutting natural thin veneer in 2000. At the time I was a mason with stone in my truck — always — because I wanted the option to use the real thing on every job. Other masons started asking where I was getting it. I started selling to them. That is how this started: one mason who cared, selling to other masons who cared.
STEVE MILLER · ABOUT 1971 · LEARNING THE TRADE
How We Got Here
From a converted chicken coop
to the shop we run today.
Our first shop was exactly what it sounds like. A chicken coop on the farm, converted into a cutting operation. It was not glamorous. The stone did not care.
From there we moved into a pole barn. More space, more equipment, more stone. The operation grew because the standard never changed — every piece cut with the same attention a mason brings to the work, because that is what we are.
We are now in a 17,500 square foot facility in Howard City, Michigan — the equipment to cut fifteen blends to order, and a team that knows stone the way masons know stone. The building changed. The standard did not.
Started cutting natural thin veneer. Stone in the truck. Selling to fellow masons who wanted the real thing.
Moved from the chicken coop to a pole barn on the farm. Equipment grew. The standard did not change.
17,500 sq ft in Howard City. Fifteen Michigan blends, cut to order, shipped nationally.
The People Behind The Stone
My Bride has been part of this
from the beginning.
Connie and I built this together. The Stone Mill is not a corporation with a marketing department and a brand story — it is a family business, and that means something different.
It means when something goes wrong on your order, you are talking to us. It means when we say we stand behind our stone, there is a person standing there. It means the re-investment we make in our people and our process every year is a personal decision, not a budget line item.
“My Bride and I continually re-invest in our people and our process so we can provide you with the very best.”
— Steve and Connie Miller, The Stone Mill Inc.
Why Michigan
Everything we sell starts here.
We do not source from wherever the price is right. This stone is from Michigan, cut in Michigan, and delivered by people who live here.
Quarried in Michigan
Every blend in our collection — from the common granite cobble to the varied colors of our limestone blends — comes from Michigan geology. The same forces that shaped the Great Lakes shoreline made our stone.
ONAWAY · MANISTIQUE · ALPENA · SAULT STE. MARIE · IONIA
Cut in Howard City
Every order is cut here, to the parameters our crew has held for years. That consistency is the point — the Hemlock on your job matches the Hemlock we cut last spring, and the last crate looks like the first. If a job needs something outside the standard, ask. We cut custom too.
Reach the people who cut it
Every piece comes off the same saws in Howard City. So when a question comes up on your job — a blend match, a coverage number, a piece that has to be right — you are not filing a ticket with a supplier three states away. You are talking to the shop that cut your stone.
What We Believe
The best work starts
with the best material.
A mason knows the difference between stone that will hold and stone that will not. Between a wall that will look the same in thirty years and one that will not. Between a decision that takes care of itself and one that requires maintenance, replacement, and regret.
We have been in the business of providing the best material since 2000. Every blend we offer has been selected because it meets the standard a mason sets — not the standard a marketer sets. There is a difference, and you will feel it the first time you hold a piece of our stone in your hand.
We look forward to the opportunity to earn your trust and participate in your dream.
The Next Step Is Simple
Hold the stone
before you decide.
Request a sample of any blend and we will get it to you. Bring it home. Hold it against your home. Then decide.