Remains of kilns at the site of the former Great Northern Portland Cement Company, 1929. Photo courtesy of Lake County Historical Society.
Story by Kevin Howell
Just a few miles southwest of Baldwin lie the ruins of what once was the largest cement plant in Michigan, if not the world. Rubble of homes, remnants of a storage facility and the old foundation bones of the former Great Northern Portland Cement Company factory are what’s left of the short-lived town of Marlborough, Michigan. The ambiance is ghost town, with greenery and graffiti taking over the cement structures still standing.
However, thanks to the Lake County Historical Society, the story of Marlborough will come to life again. Beginning on Aug. 10, the museum will release copies of a professionally produced, full-length documentary called, “Marlborough, A Tale of Riches to Ruins.”
Production of the documentary came about coincidentally, arising from another project. Mark Boardman, owner and cinematographer of Boardman Productions, and Mark Jager, author of “Mystic Michigan” books and films, were looking for information for two TV episodes of “Mystic Michigan”. The topic was, of course, the town of Marlborough. They ended up at the Lake County Historical Museum and began digging through material provided by curator Jill Engelman. That’s when they became enchanted with the story.
“It started about two years ago,” Engelman explained. “… They came here that September and Mark expected to be here for a shoot of five or eight minutes, but he said, ‘You have way too much information, I’m really excited about this, and I want to work with you on a full-length documentary.’”
Boardman liked Jager’s short stories about interesting places and unique oddities of Michigan.
“I met this guy, like, 20 years ago and said, ‘Hey, you should turn your short stories into a TV show.’ I said, ‘We can probably pitch it to PBS,’ and so we agreed to just do a pilot and then kind of sell it and see what kind of reaction we got. So, the first story is the Marlborough story and we ended up doing two episodes because people liked it so much, so that’s how we met Jill.”
Two years were spent gathering information and conducting interviews. The museum has had a Marlborough exhibit for some time, but during the documentary’s production area residents, volunteers and museum personnel discovered artifacts, letters from past workers at the plant, photos and other documentation. The film’s length grew from 5-8 minutes to a little more than 60.
It’s an amazing story of technology and human incentive that turned the building of a factory into a booming industry and economic boon for Lake County in the early 1900s.
“It was an economic plus for the area,” Engelman said. “The company was incorporated in 1901, and by that time the two major investors, Howard Parsons and Frederick Farnsworth, had sold stock in the amount of one million dollars.
“They purchased all the land, nearly 8,000 acres, plus constructed all the cement plant buildings and all the equipment for the buildings, the hotel, opera house, mercantile, an inn, 72 houses (and) a one-room school. All of those buildings were paid for when the plant opened through the sale of stock. That’s important to the rest of the story.”
It went well at first. The company dug marl ⸺ calcium carbonate with a lime-rich mud, a byproduct of receding glaciers ⸺ from North Lake. (Combining the words marl and borough, which means “town,” gave the place its name.) Then, through a process of drying, burning and grinding, etc., workers turned the mess into particles of cement. About seven railroad cars filled with bags and barrels of finished cement product were shipped every day.
Unfortunately, technology also led to the town’s demise in just a few years. A new process using limestone rock was developed that removed the need for drying the marl. As a result, making cement became much more efficient. The company took out loans to re-tool, but the cost was too high.
“So, they ended up going bankrupt in 1907,” Engelman said. “The stockholders lost their yearly income from their stock, and the bank who loaned them the $600,000 (was) out the $600,000. That was five years from the time the company’s foundation was poured until the company’s demise.”
There’s more to the story, of course, but those untold portions will have to wait for the documentary’s Aug. 10 release. At that time, museum visitors may view the updated Marlborough exhibit and purchase DVDs and USB drives of the documentary for $15 each.
For more information, contact the Lake County Historical Museum at 231-898-6500, or email them at lakecountyhistory@hotmail.com. Find them on Facebook HERE
The Marlborough documentary filmmakers
By Kevin Howell
Mark Boardman moved to Cadillac 15 years ago from the Dallas area. He is the owner of Boardman Productions and has produced documentaries and videos for more than 30 years. He produces works for historical societies and has produced a number of PBS programs, including a documentary with James Earl Jones titled, “Black Indiana”. Boardman writes, shoots and edits scenes and composes music.
Mark Jager lives in Hersey and is the author of the “Mystic Michigan” series of books. He is also involved in video productions of two TV program pilots related to his series. Topics for his books include water running uphill, sinking cities, floating islands, bottomless lakes, natural underwater passages, mirages, ice caves, underwater Native American trails and many more unique places and phenomena in Michigan.
Kevin Howell lives in Mason County. He loves the Michigan woods, lakes, people and, especially, Michigan craft beers – not necessarily in that order!
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