Here's an interesting article from the February 28, 1940 edition of the
Lorain Journal. It tells the story of how the Amherst quarries played a big role in the rebuilding of Chicago after the devastating fire that started on the west side of the Windy City on October 8, 1871.
It notes,"When Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over the lantern more than half a century ago and touched off the dangerous conflagration which wiped out three and a half square miles of Chicago's most flourishing districts, the seed was sown for an unprecedented boom in activities about which the growth of young Lorain-co was then centering.
"Mute evidence of this can be seen in the abandoned quarry holes, near Brownhelm, the iron streak of rusty rails occasionally seen thru the woods north of Amherst and the piers of Oak Point.
"The Sandstone Center of the World," then a community larger than its neighboring village of Charleston, now Lorain, played a most important part in the rebuilding of the fire-ravaged city thru its unlimited supply of stone.
'Faced with the Herculean task of reconstructing the city, the undaunted people of the midwest metropolis discovered in Lorain-co the closest available spot where a sufficient supply of stone building materials could be obtained.
"Amherst sandstone was especially well fitted since it was easily worked, but hardened on exposure to air after construction.
"Shrewd business men, sensing the opportunity and also anxious to have this district play its part in rehabilitating the burned area, exerted every possible effort to turn out stone from the numerous quarries around Amherst at a rapid pace.
"The success and volume of this enterprise rested on cheap transportation which was provided by constructing a railroad from the quarries to Oak Point and a stone landing pier, projecting into the lake, from which stone was transferred off tiny cars into vessels Chicago-bound.
"The Clough Stone Co. was the owner of this railroad. It was a little, narrow-gauge road that ran from their quarry to Oak Point, just west of Lorain, where the company had the wharf.
"Besides stimulating the stone industry at Amherst, Charleston, the village to which shipbuilding was already bringing fame among Great Lakes communities benefited to a large extent thru the increase in vessel tonnage during the boom in stone business."
The boom in business lasted two years. But as the article concludes, "With Chicago rebuilt, normalcy returned to the "limestone center," many of the quarries were abandoned and the railroad to Oak Point together with the old piers were allowed to disintegrate.
"But the road kept running until the Lake Shore railroad made its rates so low that it was cheaper to ship by rail than water. Then the whole narrow-gauge outfit was sold to a Michigan lumber concern where the little engine continued its usefulness by pulling logs instead of stone.
"Amherst, however, has continued with its thriving stone industry which is known thruout the United States and Canada. Amherst sandstone many be found in some of the finest buildings in the nation."
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Interested in learning more about Oak Point?
Several well-known local historians undertook a Herculean task of their own by researching and compiling the definitive history of "Mysterious Oak Point."
Why 'Mysterious'?
As noted in Oak Point, Ohio - Beaver Park, Ohio - and Its Environs (which you can download here), Oak Point was a popular resort spot with facilities for boating, bathing, fishing, ball playing, dancing, and bowling. But that all changed in 1905 when a Columbus businessman came to town and began buying up nearby farms. What was planned for Oak Point? It was never revealed.
But in Oak Point, Ohio - Beaver Park, Ohio - and Its Environs you'll find an incredible collection of articles, vintage photos, newspaper clippings, souvenirs, maps, then-and-now photos and biographical profiles of the people involved that will simply amaze you.
Be sure to download a copy and thank Matthew Weisman and Paula Brosky Shorf for all their hard work.
But you're not done downloading yet!
Historian and archivist Dennis Lamont personally created an Oak Point manuscript (which you can download here) in Word by transcribing a selection of vintage (and sometimes hard to read) newspaper articles in chronological order from 1890 to 2021 – including the 1940 article at the top of this post. I'll bet Dennis went through several bottles of Murine.
And if you're still in the mood for all things Oak Point, be sure to visit Drew Penfield's "Lake Shore Rail Maps" website where you'll find a nice capsule history of the resort on this page.
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Finally – waaaaaaay back in 2010 I wrote about the Oak Point Mystery back here.
