While cruising North on US-23 here in Michigan you'll come to what has been called the "Man Made Grand Canyon".
Along the beautiful shores of the World's 5th largest lake, you'll stumble upon the small town of Rogers City. It sits on the 45th Parallel and is a great spot to get a picture. Here are a couple signs on the side of the road.
Mine Facts
Starting in 1912, the mine opened for production and hasn't stopped since. So far it has shipped 915,931,719 tons tonnes of Michigan Limestone/Calcite through the Great Lakes and across the globe.
The visitor center was closed when we went but it is available for the public to check out. The reason it got nicknamed the Man Made Grand Canyon is due to its enormous size.
These boulders were moved for the 100th anniversary and are each the size of a small house.
The quarry is 150ft deep, 1.5 across and over 4 miles wide. It doesn't seem that big when you look at it...until you see the boulders and trucks. Have a look across it from the viewing platform.
The Limestone from here is used for numerous things including the following from Wikipedia:
The calcite limestone produced at Michigan Limestone is the white calcium carbonate chemical. It is low in iron, alumina, sulphur, carbonate phosphorus, silica, magnesium and titanium. Steel mills added limestone to molten iron in the blast furnaces. It is used to carry away impurities in the process of making steel. The material is also in widespread use in making cement. The limestone when burned at a temperature up to 2300 degrees Fahrenheit (999 degrees Celsius) produces just pure lime, which is used in everything from making paints, varnishes, sugar, glass, baking powder and ammonia. Lime is also used in making chemicals such as soda ash, caustic soda, bleaching powders, and water softening salt. Limestone was used to fill the caissons that support the Mackinac Bridge.
It's crazy to think that you can make Steel more pure or some nice sugary sweet tea from this. They also use it on farms to pull the acid from the soil and add the lime back to help plant growth.
I hope you enjoyed this short post about the quarry. We pass it a few times a year on our way to the Upper Peninsula since we take the back roads. If you are ever in the area I recommend stopping.
They also have a place in town they bring chunks of Limestone up for the public to sift through. Lots of Devonian era fossils are pulled from them and even some small Calcite Crystals.
#haveyoubeenhere before and seen the quarry? Let us know down in the comments. We look forward to hearing from you. Be sure to check out and follow us on our other Social Media sites. You can find them by scanning the QR code below.
