Totem Pole Tales- The American Wood Rim Company and the stone quarry and Black Lake Submitted by Nute Chapman From Onaway Outlook April 5, 2013

CAPTION #1: THE STONE QUARRY at Black Lake in 1904-05


CAPTION #2:  A RAIL CAR loaded at the Stone Quarry.  The house on the cliff was known to many of us as the "Haunted 
House."



   Now that Lobdell and Bailey have purchased their sister company along with the Northern Michigan Railroad to 
Fowlerville, we find it hard to sort out the many areas of growth in Onaway.

   We find that in 1903 the Detroit & Mackinac Railroad built a 900-foot spur into what would be the new Onaway
Stone Company.  A person with the title of Col. W.L. Churchill had built the first sugar beet factory in Michigan
at Bay City in 1898.  One of the steps in making beet sugar is the purification step.

   Raw juice from the diffuser must have most of the remaining impurities removed so that the sugar can be 
crystallized.  Lime and carbon dioxide are generated in a lime kiln by heating calcium carbonate stone.  The juice
is treated first with the lime and then by bubbling carbon dioxide up through the lime and juice mixture.  The 
impurities tend to adhere to the particles of lime and the carbon dioxide acts to convert and precipitate the lime
as insoluble calcium carbonate crystals.  The lime particles are settled out in a clarifier while the purified
juice is filtered to remove all remaining particles of lime.  The settled lime is washed and then dried.  The lime 
becomes an excellent soil amendment and is distributed for use in agriculture.

   Now enter the Onaway Stone Quarry.  On June 30, 1903 an article from the Outlook states: Onaway gets a plant
for quarrying limestone for sugar beet factories.  W.L. Churchill, president of  the Bay City Sugar Company and
also of the Tawas Sugar Company, has organized a company to quarry rock at Black Lake some seven miles from Onaway
to supply stone for these two large industries.  W.L. Churchill is president; H.D. Churchill is vice president, 
J. Morgan Clark, secretary, and E.J. Lobdell treasurer and manager.

   We also know that J.M. Clark had lime kilns at this site and shipped many loads of lime out to be used in making
cement, steel and for agriculture purposes.

   The stone quarry employed many men and was a booming business until June of 1912 when the Calcite Plant in Rogers
City shipped its first load of stone out by freighters.  It was not long after this that the timber in the area
was exhausted and passengers from Black Lake were using other means of traveling.  The Northern Michigan Railroad
was no longer needed.

   We don't know the date but the rails and tie plates were taken up and reused like all other abandoned railroads.

   The families that live on the cliffs at the quarry are no doubt happy that the Quarry was closed.  They have the
best view of Black Lake that can be found.  Just ask our postmaster, Tim George, the next time you need a stamp.

 
  
 -From The Onaway Outlook, April 5, 2013, p. 3.  
    

Retyped by J. Anderson.