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, blackboard/sidewalk chalk, and drywall. A massive fine-grained white or lightly tinted variety of gypsum, called alabaster, has been used for sculpture by many cultures including Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and the Nottingham alabasters of Medieval England. Gypsum also crystallizes as translucent crystals of selenite. It forms as an evaporite mineral and as a hydration product of anhydrite.
Kent County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the county had a population of 602,622. Its county seat is Grand Rapids. The county was set off in 1831, and organized in 1836. It is named for New York jurist and legal scholar James Kent, who represented the Michigan Territory in its dispute with Ohio over the Toledo Strip.
Kentwood is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 48,707 as of the 2010 census.
Wyoming is a city in Kent County, Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city has a total population of 72,125, which makes it the 3rd largest community or city in West Michigan, the 14th largest city in the state of Michigan, and the 18th largest community in the state as well as the largest suburb of Grand Rapids.
Gerald R. Ford International Airport is a commercial airport in Cascade Township approximately 13 miles (21 km) southeast of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The facility is owned by the Kent County Board of Commissioners and managed by an independent authority. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021 categorized it as a small hub primary commercial service facility.
Interstate 196 (I-196) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that runs for 80.6 miles (129.7 km) in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids together. In Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan counties, I-196 is known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway, or simply the Ford Freeway, after the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, who was raised in Grand Rapids and served Michigan in the House of Representatives. This name generally refers only to the section between Holland and Grand Rapids. I-196 changes direction; it is signed as a north–south highway from its southern terminus to the junction with US Highway 31 (US 31) just south of Holland, and as an east–west trunkline from this point to its eastern terminus at an interchange with I-96, its parent highway. There are currently three business routes related to the main freeway. There are two business loops and one business spur that serve South Haven, Holland and the Grand Rapids areas. Another business spur for Muskegon had been designated relative to the I-196 number.
West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland area, or more broadly to most of the region along the Lake Michigan shoreline of the Lower Peninsula, but there is no official definition for it.
M-6, or the Paul B. Henry Freeway, is a 19.7-mile-long (31.7 km) east–west freeway and state trunkline highway in the United States that serves portions of southern Kent and eastern Ottawa counties south of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Although the freeway is named for Paul B. Henry, local residents and the press continue to use the original name, South Beltline as well on occasion. The freeway connects Interstate 196 (I-196) on the west with I-96 on the east. M-6 also provides a connection to U.S. Highway 131 (US 131) in the middle of its corridor while running through several townships on the south side of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area in Western Michigan. Each end is in a rural area while the central section has suburban development along the trunkline.
Millennium Park is the largest urban park in West Michigan, located on the southwest side of Grand Rapids. Millennium Park connects four of the major cities in the area together, including Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Grandville, and Walker. When completed, the park will be twice as large as New York City's Central Park, at approximately 1,500 acres (6 km²).
Long Meg Mine is a disused gypsum mine just north of Little Salkeld, Cumbria in the area known as Cave Wood Valley. It was operated between 1880 and 1976.
The mines of Paris comprise a number of abandoned, subterranean mines under Paris, France, connected together by galleries. Three main networks exist; the largest, known as the grand réseau sud, lies under the 5th, 6th, 14th and 15th arrondissements, a second under the 13th arrondissement, and a third under the 16th, though other minor networks are found under the 12th, 14th and 16th for instance. The commercial product was Lutetian limestone for use as a building material, as well as gypsum for use in "plaster of Paris".
Kent Trails is a fifteen-mile rail trail in Kent County, Michigan that runs through the cities of Grand Rapids, Grandville, Walker, Wyoming and Byron Township and is part of a network of trails in and around Grand Rapids. It runs north and south from John Ball Park in Grand Rapids to 84th Street in Byron Township, with an extension that runs east/west along 76th Street and north/south from 76th Street to Douglas Walker Park on 84th Street.
The Chicago Drive Bridge, also known as the Business Route M-21–Plaster Creek Bridge, is a bridge in Wyoming, Michigan, carrying Business Spur I-196 over Plaster Creek. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
Plaster Creek is a 25.9-mile-long (41.7 km) urban stream in Kent County, Michigan in the United States. It is a tributary of the Grand River. The stream is named for the large deposit of gypsum found at its mouth. Its mean monthly flow averages 22 million gallons per day.
Grand Rapids is the second-largest city in Michigan and the county seat of Kent County. Situated along the Grand River approximately 30 miles (48 km) east of Lake Michigan, it is the economic and cultural hub of West Michigan, the fastest growing major city in Michigan, and one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest. According to 2019 US Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 201,013, while the greater metropolitan area had a population of 1,077,370, and a combined statistical area population of 1,412,470.
William Thompson Powers was an American businessman, politician, and manufacturer.
The Domtar Mine, formed from the consolidation of Grand Rapids Gypsum Company mines 1 & 2, is an inactive underground gypsum mine in Walker, a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Metro Health Hospital is a LEED certified hospital located in Wyoming, Michigan off of M-6 near U.S. Route 131. Located within the Metro Health Village, it is the main hospital for Metro Health: University of Michigan Health and functions as a teaching osteopathic medicine hospital. It serves more than 130,000 people in the Grand Rapids Metropolitan Area and is one of the only hospitals in the area that is not located in or near the Grand Rapids Medical Mile.
Rogers Plaza is an enclosed shopping mall in Wyoming, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Opened in 1961, it was the first shopping mall in Western Michigan. The center features Planet Fitness, Citi Trends, and OfficeMax among its major stores.
The recorded history of Grand Rapids in the U.S. state of Michigan, began with settlers in 1806.
