3. Osborn And The Soo

  Chase Salmon Osborn stood at the center of the creation of Fiborn Quarry. Osborn wrote and received an extraordinary volume of letters in addition to keeping a diary. Captured in the flow of personal details surviving from Osborn's life is a record of influence on an area of wilderness and timber lands noteworthy for its rocky nature and caves that became the site of Fiborn Quarry.

Chase Osborn in 1898.

  In the late 1880's, Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan was a place where many opportunities could be seen with a glance. Construction of a great water power project, originally attempted in the 1840's, was under way. The town had found the crossroads to a long promised industrial future based on the power of the waters falling from Lake Superior towards Lake Huron. Transportation, by water and rail, along with the manufacturing which would be drawn to the city by the water power, allowed the boosters of the Soo to see greatness for their city. This is the city to which Chase Osborn arrived from Wisconsin in 1899, buying The Soo News, a Republican weekly newspaper that routinely put forward the interests of Sault Sainte Marie.

  The water power project would go dormant for lack of funds in 1890, waiting for new promoters to again stir interest and expectations. Chase Osborn became well established as a leading citizen of Sault Sainte Marie. In his role as publisher of a lively weekly newspaper he formed many friendships with newspaper editors across the state and within the ranks of the Republican party. Osborn loved to hunt, sail, and walk the woods, creating time for his outdoor passions while serving as Post Master in Sault Sainte Marie. Osborn's activities and visibility in the state increased through the decade, being appointed in 1896 as Game and Fish Warden of Michigan, then Commissioner of Railroads in 1899, all while continuing to operate his newspaper, deal in the real estate of lumber tracts and islands, and maintain family life with his wife Lillian and their four children, Ethel, George, Chase, and Emily. Osborn would foreshadow his election as Governor of Michigan in 1910 with an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination for Governor in 1900.

4. Clergue And Carbide      3. Fiborn Quarry's History