This area takes its name from a variety of gypsum discovered offshore by Douglass Houghton in 1837. Prospectors soon searched for other gypsum deposits, and this quarry opened in 1862 under B. F. Smith. Gypsum was first used as fertilizer and as an ingredient in plaster, and is now used chiefly to manufacture wallboard. A fire in 1891 destroyed the operation, but it was rebuilt in time to supply material for the main buildings at the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893. Those buildings, with marble-like walls, won the exposition the title "White City" and greatly expanded gypsum sales. Incorporated into the U.S. Gypsum Company in 1902, this quarry helped make Michigan a leading producer of gypsum for more than a century.