Ice Mountain of Stanwood

The BlueTriton Water Bottling Plant (formerly Nestlé North America Water Bottling Plant, known colloquially as Ice Mountain of Stanwood) is a water bottling plant located just a few miles south of Big Rapids, in the village of Stanwood, MI - part of Mecosta Twp.

It is the inspiration behind the fictional Sleet Mountain Lower Northern plant in The Gerosha Chronicles, which features in both the original Blood Over Water miniseries made by Dozerfleet Studios and the Fall 2009 Ferris TVPR 389 Wednesday Night class for Bulldog Television, and in its Sims 4 comic adaptation for the Cataclysmic Gerosha timeline - first inceived in 2013.

Dozerfleet history
The original class cut didn't censor the name to Sleet Mountain, something that was done by Dozerfleet Studios after the fact, to protect the Ferris Access Channel facing potential litigation for defamation. In the original class cut, Ice Mountain was made the villain organization - to appease instructor Nathan Meadows, who wanted an environmental commentary shoehorned into the class project's missing persons mystery thriller.

Sleet Mountain is where Clyde Spendelworth crafts most of his evil schemes, before Chris goes on a nationwide rampage to destroy Clyde's Gleeful-N'-Young trafficking empire. Chris proves highly successful for six years, before being trapped in Gerosha during a Hebbleskin Gang takeover while in the middle of chasing down Frank Morvel during the events in the Earth-G7 story Ciem: Inferno.

The setting of Sleet Mountain / Ice Mountain borrowed heavily from old 1990s news reports regarding issues with cleaning up plant waste. The miniseries had it that the plant was engaged in some sort of cleanup fraud conspiracy, and workers who wouldn't accept hush money were being murdered by already-corrupted coworkers. The comic took things a step further: Clyde creates the cleanup fraud conspiracy as a cover for the fact that Gleeful-N'-Young is using the plant to hide illegal porn, and that they are planning to abduct women and children from several towns near Stanwood. That way, if one scandal does break, it'll distract from the worse one.

Nearby area
In addition to the pond areas and forests, the immediate west of the plant includes an onramp to Highway 131. The northern entrance leads into Cadillac, whereas the southern entrance leads to Grand Rapids. To the immediate east of the plant is the Andersen's shop, compiled along with Big L Lumber. Heading east a short distance from the plant, one may discover themselves at the intersection with Northland Dr. Taking Northland for five miles leads to the Falcon Head Golf Club. Continuing north, Northland Dr. transforms into State St. in Big Rapids.

Heading east on 8 Mile Rd., one would soon discover just a little past the onramp to 131 a BP gas station, as 8 Mile gives way to M20. A Pizza and Grinders shop once existed here - the one George Lawence is at while lying in wait for Vance Lingolin in the Blood Over Water comic. That location has since become a Fatbelly shop. The intersection nearest to this is one leading to Old State Rd. It is along Old State Rd. that Vance meets his demise at George's hand in the comic. In real life, Old State Rd. leads to Amish settlements and some private farmland. At some junction right after where Vance meets his demise, however, there's an odd merge point. At that juncture, Old State Rd. gives way to Northland Dr. Continuing down that road leads to Redeemer Lutheran Church. Going further north past that, one arrives in Big Rapids proper.

Trivia

 * Miniseries crew members Chris Wilson, Zach Foster, and Kyle Mayer visited a pond near the actual plant in the fall of 2009, in order to gather water samples that would be used for developing the plot to part 3.
 * Since no member of the crew was granted access to Nestlé's actual Ice Mountain development sections inside the actual building, office areas within the plant were doubled for by various offices located on the campus of Ferris State.
 * Professor Debbie Carley's office was used as the Sleet Mountain main office, as much of Bishop Hall was used as a stand-in for Sleet Mountain / Ice Mountain.
 * Class instructor Nathan Meadows was supposed to portray Clyde, but was unavailable on shooting day. Obscuring Zach became a must, as Zach was already established as portraying both Mark and Aaron Stefflin.

Further viewing

 * Ice Mountain in 2008 on Google Street View