The Mystery of the 2 Holes at Rush Lake In Huron County

When I was a kid, my cousin and I would ride all over the trails near Rush Lake State Game Area, a hunting area in the Upper Thumb. We explored the hills and the large cattail-filled lake. One area that fascinated us was a deep pool of water cut out of the sandstone at the end of Quarry Road. It was larger than the size of two Olympic swimming pools. We threw rocks into it and tried to determine how deep the water was. We typically got chased out by some irritated neighbor or got bored and went to explore something else. Other than the street’s name, no one knew anything about that deep pool at the end of the road.

A Mystery at Rush Lake State Game Area

Years go by, and I’m researching the quarry operations of Grindstone City and William Wallace’s quarry in Bay Port when I encountered a strange reference to another business. There is mention of a stone quarry with a large dock operation near an area called Little Oak Point. Oak Point is located north of Rush Lake. It was an interesting development. Could this be the origin of that large water-filled pool I explored as a kid?

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A Rush Lake Competitor to Grindstone City?

The Babbitt Sandstone Company was headquartered in Ypsilanti, Michigan. It began stone quarry operations in March of 1885 in Lake Township. It was opened on a large exposed area of Napoleon sandstone just north of Rush Lake. News of the quarry’s opening in newspapers throughout Michigan indicated that they wanted to manufacture grindstones. They extracted a blue sandstone that was very hard and ideally suited as a building material.

Babbitt established a long dock out into Saginaw Bay for shipping the building material. By 1887, the quarried stone was also used for cemetery memorials as the hard sandstone was considered to weather well and hold the inscriptions. Examples of the memorials are said to be found at Caseville cemetery.

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Babbitt’s Small Quarry Fails at Rush Lake

Like Grindstone City, the operations began to falter in the late 1880s. Public records in 1892 show that the Babbitt operations may have started to decline as the company failed to file its financial report that year to the state. By 1910, a State geological survey indicated that the quarry was no longer in operation, and the quarry areas were filled with water.

The last evidence of the Babbitt quarry can still be seen at the end of Quarry Road. Specifically, the 1800s excavations are on the edge of the Rush Lake State Game Area in Lake Township. The site can be seen on Google Earth of the large holes of the former stone quarrying operations. The Babbitt quarry was the smallest and shortest-lived of the sandstone quarry operations of the Upper Thumb.

Historic Site of Babbitt Sandstone Company

Sadly there is little documentation on the company other than its listing in the trade journals of the late 1800s. I wish there was a picture of the large dock used to ship the stone out of the quarry. It must have been tremendous as this area is shallow for at least a hundred yards from the beach’s edge.

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Research on Rush Lake

• Isabella County Enterprise, 27 March 1885
• Geological Survey of Michigan Lower Peninsula 1896-1900, State of Michigan
• A Biological Survey of the Sand Dune Region on the South Shore of Saginaw Bay Michigan, 1910-1911, State of Michigan

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Similar Stories to Quarry Operations at Rush Lake

• Coal Mining Operations of Sebewaing – Discovery of surface and shallow coal veins was a result of grist mill construction in 1835 west of Jackson Michigan. State geologist Douglas Houghton confirmed the existence of coal deposits in 1837.
• Grindstone City, the Thumbs First Industry – In the late 1800’s Grindstone City, was one of the first flourishing industry towns and produced the largest and finest grindstones in the world.
• Buried Inca Gold at Loosemore’s Castle – There is a tale in some of the historic newspaper papers of Michigan’s Upper Thumb that speaks of Indian gold and a hermit who owned a bit of land around what was called Loosemore point. Hugh Loosemore kept to himself. He collected driftwood along the beach from ships that had broken up near the point, and it was plentiful.
• The Upper Thumb Led in Michigan Salt – The first successful attempt to manufacture salt in Michigan was made by the East Saginaw Salt Manufacturing Company in 1859. The success of this company led to the rapid development of the industry in the Saginaw Valley, where the blocks were operated in connection with sawmills.
• Sebewaing Cider and Jelly Factory was a Treat – The 1880s was a decade of huge change in Michigan’s Upper Thumb. The lumbering era was dwindling, and family farms were getting firmly established after the great fires of 1871 and 1881. The agricultural era began, and the Thumb region would soon excel in bean and sugar beet production.
• Android App for Thumbwind – Thumbwind has an Android App for those who want to keep up to date on activities and news of the Upper Thumb anytime, anywhere.

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