Integrative Natural History of Fayette Historic State Park, Part 7: Stone, Brick, Timber, and Terracing | Garden Peninsula, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, USA
(Updated on January 20, 2025)
We're standing near the Snail Shell Harbor embankment and not far from the modern park marina. And we are looking southwestward at the narrow neck of land separating those features from the open waters of Big Bay de Noc.
The large timber edifice with stone basement, just right of center, is Town Hall. This structure was the subject of the wildly popular Part 6 photo and description. As I mentioned there, the structure's clapboard exterior was produced from local forest trees, and its basal ashlar is dolostone taken from the Burnt Bluff Group. It was quarried nearby, over on Middle Bluff.
In the left foreground stands the roofless and gutted Company Store & Warehouse. Another portion of it is visible in Part 2. The Silurian-period Hendricks dolostone makes up most of the walls, with imported red brick of unknown source providing a bit of contrast, and only a bit, in the door and window arches.
I would not be completely surprised if the brick is Chicago Common, which could often outcompete more conveniently located manufacturers in the Great Lakes region. But many other options are plausible, too. For example, here on the Upper Peninsula the city of Marquette produced a lovely red brick shown in this other notable UP architectural-geology site.
The smaller timber-and-stone structure at far right of this frame is one of a pair of Manager's Houses; the other, painted a cream tint, is just barely visible between the two larger buildings.
Both of these rather Spartan residences were erected in New England's classic Salt Box Style, which features a simple rectangular footprint rendered less than utterly boring by a roof that is short and set above the second floor in front, but which extends farther down to the first floor in back. In the years since this photo was taken, this house has been restored and painted to match its companion.
This shot contains one other point of geologic interest: the fact that these building sit on one or both of two different levels. This could reflect the presence of a higher ancient shoreline when Lake Michigan or one of its predecessors was higher. Or perhaps the low foreground was anthropogenic (human-generated) fill. In any case, the terrace face punctuated by Town Hall seems to be a partially vegetated exposure of the Hendricks Dolomite. This mini-cliff continues all the way around the small headland to the right of this scene.
To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Integrative Natural History of Fayette Historic State Park album.
Integrative Natural History of Fayette Historic State Park, Part 7: Stone, Brick, Timber, and Terracing | Garden Peninsula, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, USA
(Updated on January 20, 2025)
We're standing near the Snail Shell Harbor embankment and not far from the modern park marina. And we are looking southwestward at the narrow neck of land separating those features from the open waters of Big Bay de Noc.
The large timber edifice with stone basement, just right of center, is Town Hall. This structure was the subject of the wildly popular Part 6 photo and description. As I mentioned there, the structure's clapboard exterior was produced from local forest trees, and its basal ashlar is dolostone taken from the Burnt Bluff Group. It was quarried nearby, over on Middle Bluff.
In the left foreground stands the roofless and gutted Company Store & Warehouse. Another portion of it is visible in Part 2. The Silurian-period Hendricks dolostone makes up most of the walls, with imported red brick of unknown source providing a bit of contrast, and only a bit, in the door and window arches.
I would not be completely surprised if the brick is Chicago Common, which could often outcompete more conveniently located manufacturers in the Great Lakes region. But many other options are plausible, too. For example, here on the Upper Peninsula the city of Marquette produced a lovely red brick shown in this other notable UP architectural-geology site.
The smaller timber-and-stone structure at far right of this frame is one of a pair of Manager's Houses; the other, painted a cream tint, is just barely visible between the two larger buildings.
Both of these rather Spartan residences were erected in New England's classic Salt Box Style, which features a simple rectangular footprint rendered less than utterly boring by a roof that is short and set above the second floor in front, but which extends farther down to the first floor in back. In the years since this photo was taken, this house has been restored and painted to match its companion.
This shot contains one other point of geologic interest: the fact that these building sit on one or both of two different levels. This could reflect the presence of a higher ancient shoreline when Lake Michigan or one of its predecessors was higher. Or perhaps the low foreground was anthropogenic (human-generated) fill. In any case, the terrace face punctuated by Town Hall seems to be a partially vegetated exposure of the Hendricks Dolomite. This mini-cliff continues all the way around the small headland to the right of this scene.
To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Integrative Natural History of Fayette Historic State Park album.