Jacobsville Sandstone

[10][11] A correlation between the Jacobsville and the Freda Sandstone (instead of the Bayfield) has been suggested on the basis on similar mineralogy, texture, and stratigraphic position.

[5] A red clastic layer in Putnam County, Ohio, was tentatively termed Jacobsville Sandstone in 1948 by Charles Fettke.

[13] Jacobsville Sandstone is generally red, due to small quantities of iron oxides, mottled with various pinks, whites and browns.

[14] The sandstone exhibits many white streaks and spherical spots, caused by leaching and bleaching, which form sharp boundaries with surrounding colors.

Jacobsville Sandstone's heavy mineral suite is 84% ilmenite, 4–5% leucoxene, 4% garnet, 3% apatite, 3% zircon, and 1% tourmaline.

[26] Jacobsville Sandstone varies from horizontal to gently inclined and paleocurrents point toward the Lake Superior basin.

[29] Jacobsville Sandstone, rising only a few feet above lake level, is the oldest formation exposed in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

[25][30] Sand and gravel were transported in streams that flowed northward out of the Northern Michigan Highlands, remnants of mountains formed during the Penokean orogeny.

The streams leveled out along what is now the southern shore of Lake Superior, depositing sediment that formed the Jacobsville Sandstone.

[9] The environment of deposition was moist and humid, resulting in the sandstone's red color due to the precipitation of pigmentary hematite.

For example, along the Sturgeon River in the Ottawa National Forest, the Jacobsville Sandstone unconformably overlies ca.

1108 million year old Midcontinent Rift basalt on which a soil had developed prior to Jacobsville Sandstone deposition.

[1] As a result, the Jacobsville Sandstone is constrained to have been deposited during the final Rigolet Phase of the Grenvillian Orogeny (1010–980 million years ago).

[35] Despite being a sandstone aquifer, it has a low permeability[36] and water largely moves through cracks and fissures which extend to a depth of about 100 to 150 ft (30 to 46 m).

[38] The earliest extraction of the sandstone occurred in Alger County in the 1860s with two companies providing stone to build nearby blast furnaces for the iron industry.

[41] About thirty-two quarries[42] existed over the years, clustered near Jacobsville and Marquette with others scattered along the Lake Superior coast.

[48] A purplish-brown variety of brownstone known as rain-drop, so named for its wet appearance, was described as the "most handsome stone quarried on Lake Superior.

[53] When a new quarry was opened, up to 50 ft (15 m) of glacial drift and shale overburden was blasted and removed to access the sandstone beneath.

[48][53] The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, with its White City, ushered in a change of style that preferred light-colored marbles and limestones over the dark color of Jacobsville Sandstone.

[57] The direction of architecture was dramatically altered within a decade at the expense of Jacobsville Sandstone, especially in the Lake Superior region.

[58] In 1896, the commissioner of mineral statistics for Michigan reported that: Architects have pronounced against it in their plans and specifications ... for the reason that architecture must have a change of style and material the same as millinery and tailoring.

[56] According to the director of the Michigan Geological and Biological Survey, the decline was caused in part by the Depression of 1893 and the large distance from the quarries to major markets.

[72] The Mining Journal of Marquette reported on November 20, 1875, that: Its fire-proof qualities were thoroughly tested in the great Chicago fire, where Lake Superior brownstone walls ... stood intact, without a crack, scale or blemish being caused by the great heat under the influence of which marble fronts crumbled and fell to the ground.

[59] Buildings of this style created the impression of stability in a fast-changing society and were well-suited to the character of the Lake Superior region.

These sandstones appears lighter, as the St. Marys Rapids have coursed over this deposit for millennia, leaching the iron content and leaving a marbled texture.

Map of the Upper Peninsula showing sandstone thickness.
Distribution of Jacobsville Sandstone within the Upper Peninsula
Waterfront cliff face.
Red Jacobsville Sandstone underlying the white Munising Formation in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Workers standing in a quarry with a large stone block.
Quarry of the Kerber-Jacobs Redstone Company at Portage Entry about 1897
A dock and lighthouse
A dock at Portage Entry from which the sandstone was shipped
Sandstone church building.
Saint Ignatius Loyola Church in Houghton was built with Jacobsville Sandstone.
St. Andrew's United Church in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario , built from Jacobsville Sandstone excavated from the Sault Canal .