The MKC Presents Fiborn Quarry

Fiborn Karst Preserve Activities:

There are two self-guided trails that lead the visitor through some of the Preserve's unique features. A guided tour of Fiborn Quarry can be arranged.

The MKC offers guided tours of Hendrie River Water Cave. Visitors are required to obtain written permission in advance. They must also agree to have the proper equipment (helmet, three sources of light, warm clothing, sturdy footwear, extra clothing since the cave is wet), protect the cave, and release the MKC of any liability. For the complete policies please read the FKP Use Permit Form.

If you are interested in visiting Hendrie River Water Cave or for more information on Fiborn activities please contact Martina at goldencamp@comcast.net or 248-666-1683.

1. Presenting Fiborn Quarry's History:

Memories and records of Fiborn Quarry tell many distinct stories. Gathered here are some of those stories of Fiborn Quarry; brief accounts of its founding, people, natural features and operation. Alongside are examples of the documents from which the stories are drawn and photographs from Fiborn Quarry's past and present that illustrate these accounts. (This display is located at Fiborn Quarry in Mackinac County, Michigan.)

The wider circumstances of many regional and statewide influences on life and the land including railroading, lumbering, and immigration can be seen reflected in the details of Fiborn Quarry's own story. Their connected roles in the history of Michigan play through this place of little more than one square mile.

Circumstances moved beyond Fiborn Quarry as a site of industry and livelihood. Traces of its history dispersed as the people did, leaving little record at the site other than the quarry and the fading remnants left in the wake of a vanished community.

This sketch offers an impression of Fiborn Quarry. It is a guide to be used to draw a general sense of a place in time, by exploring through documents, photographs, memories and the visitor's imagination the intricacies of life in one small place. Details of people and place as brought together here are being asked to speak, to tell about Fiborn Quarry in order that those who have an interest might learn something about, and from, its story.