The Alabaster Historic District is a 400-acre mining complex in Iosco County, Michigan, centered on an open pit gypsum mine. It is bounded by on the east by Lake Huron, on the north by Gypsum Road, on the south by Keystone Road, and on the west by Rempert Road, south of Tawas City, the county seat. This historic district, where mining started in 1862, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Gypsum produced here was used to manufacture the temporary buildings of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. [1] The Alabaster Mining Company is still operating here.
The Alabaster Historic District, located on the shore of Lake Huron, contains an enormous open pit gypsum mine, with associated processing buildings, shops, and offices. [2] The district also contains the company town, with houses and outbuildings. Most of the worker housing was constructed as 1+1⁄2-story frame houses with gable roofs. [2] The district also contains a rail line and the remains of an elevated marine tramway running 1+1⁄2 miles into Saginaw Bay. The district contains 36 buildings developed over a total of 400 acres. [1]
This location was named "Alabaster" after a variety of gypsum discovered offshore in 1837 by Douglass Houghton. [3] Soon, prospectors began searching for further sources of gypsum in the area, and stumbled upon the deposits at this site. [4] The deposits came to the attention of George B. Smith, whose father, B.F. Smith, owned a gypsum mill in Detroit. [4] Smith bought the land, and opened the mine in 1862. [2]
George Smith soon died, and ownership changed hands, with his father B.F. Smith purchasing a major share. In 1891, the company was called Western Plaster Works. [4] A fire in 1891 completely destroyed the mining structures, but operations were soon rebuilt. The Alabaster Mine supplied material for construction of the main buildings, known as the "white city," at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
In 1898, the company name was changed to the Alabaster Company. [4] In 1902, the mine was incorporated as the U.S. Gypsum Corporation. [3] Housing for workers was constructed primarily in the period around 1910, as a company town was established. The mines had attracted many European immigrants as workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The most visible and impressive structure in the district, the elevated marine tramway, was not constructed until 1929. [2] The tramway was demolished in the 1990s. [5]
The mine is still being operated today (2016). [2]
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk chalk. Gypsum also crystallizes as translucent crystals of selenite. It forms as an evaporite mineral and as a hydration product of anhydrite. The Mohs scale of mineral hardness defines gypsum as hardness value 2 based on scratch hardness comparison.
Iosco County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan; its eastern border is formed by Lake Huron. As of the 2020 census, its population was 25,237. Its seat of government is Tawas City.
The Mesabi Iron Range is a mining district and mountain range in northeastern Minnesota following an elongate trend containing large deposits of iron ore. It is the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota. First described in 1866, it is the chief iron ore mining district in the United States. The district is located largely in Itasca and Saint Louis counties. It has been extensively worked since 1892, and has seen a transition from high-grade direct shipping ores through gravity concentrates to the current industry exclusively producing iron ore (taconite) pellets. Production has been dominantly controlled by vertically integrated steelmakers since 1901, and therefore is dictated largely by US ironmaking capacity and demand.
USG Corporation, also known as United States Gypsum Corporation, is an American company which manufactures construction materials, most notably drywall and joint compound. The company is the largest distributor of wallboard in the United States and the largest manufacturer of gypsum products in North America. It is also a major consumer of synthetic gypsum, a byproduct of flue-gas desulfurization. Its corporate offices are located at 550 West Adams Street in Chicago, Illinois.
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This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Houghton County, Michigan.
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The Calumet and Hecla Industrial District is a historic district located in Calumet, Michigan and roughly bounded by Hecla & Torch Lake Railroad tracks, Calumet Avenue, Mine and Depot Streets. The district contains structures associated with the copper mines worked by the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, located along a line above the copper lode, where railroad tracks connected separate mine heads. The Historic District is completely contained in the Calumet Historic District and the Keweenaw National Historical Park. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1973 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The Jackson Mine is an open pit iron mine in Negaunee, Michigan, extracting resources from the Marquette Iron Range. The first iron mine in the Lake Superior region, Jackson Mine was designated as a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The Lake Superior Mining Institute said, the mine "is attractive in the iron ore region of Michigan and the entire Lake Superior region, because of the fact it was here that the first discovery of iron ore was made, here the first mining was done, and from its ore the first iron was manufactured." Multiple other mines soon followed the Jackson's lead, establishing the foundation of the economy of the entire region. The mine is located northwest of intersection of Business M-28 and Cornish Town Road.
The Minong Mine is a historic mine site located west of McCargoe Cove campground on Isle Royale National Park, Michigan, United States. The district contains both the remnants of a 19th-century copper mine and remains of pre-contact mining activity. Pre-contact archeological sited in the district include a Late Archaic copper mining pit site designated 20KE24 and a nearby site designated 20KE73. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021.
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