Alabaster, MI

So we decided to wander up the eastern side of the state yesterday. As we were driving up US-23, my mom saw a sign that pointed towards Alabaster and she was always curious what it was, so she turned there. And this is what we saw:

This is a place that ships would load gypsum. Unfortunately, it was a relatively unprotected port, so ships could only load in good weather which given this state kind of limits its usefulness.

There used to be a tramway that connected this to the shore, that has since been dismantled. This structure was built in 1928 and went out of business years ago. There is still some gypsum mining in the area.

The town itself was founded in 1860 by a man named Jack Thompson. Two men discovered gypsum in the area and traded Jack the land for a shotgun, two quarts of whiskey and a dog. There was a sprawling town at one time.

This is pretty much what is left on the shore.