Jacobsville

Jacobsville is a small unincorporated village on Keweenaw Bay, near where the Portage River meets Lake Superior. It grew up around red sandstone quarries in the 1880s, took its name from quarryman John H. Jacobs, and gave its name to the stone itself: Jacobsville sandstone. The Portage River Lighthouse stands at its edge.

 

The stone came first

The lighthouse is older than the village. It was lit in 1856, when this shore was mostly woods and water.

 

The stone was found by a man who later kept the light. George Craig, sailing the south shore in 1861, noticed the red sandstone near Portage Entry and later bought land along it. He could not raise the money to run a quarry himself. He kept the Portage River Lighthouse from 1878 to 1888.

 

In 1883 John H. Jacobs leased the Craig property and began quarrying as Furst, Jacobs and Company. Other companies followed. Michigan Tech counts about half a dozen quarry sites near Jacobsville, very active from 1883 to 1896. By 1899 Furst, Jacobs and Co. had merged with the Portage Red Stone Company as the Portage Entry Quarries Company.

 

A village of quarrymen

Jacobsville grew fast. By about 1897 it had some 800 people, many of them immigrants who came to cut stone. Many were Finnish. In 1888 the Finnish Lutheran congregation built a small frame church in the woods west of the village. It still stands, with no electricity or plumbing, and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.

 

The light the quarries steered by

Stone left Jacobsville by water, loaded onto ships from docks just offshore. An old photograph in the Michigan Tech Archives shows the lighthouse with loading derricks behind it. Another is captioned "Settlement at Furst, Jacobs & Co.'s Quarries," and the lighthouse is in the frame.

 

In 1958 a local newspaper looked back on the light as a beacon for the boats that carried Jacobsville stone to "scattered states of the union."

 

Where the stone went

The formation was named Jacobsville sandstone in 1907, after this village. Geologists put its age at roughly a billion years. Builders called the red variety redstone. Jacobsville sandstone built the Calumet Theatre, St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Houghton, and the original Waldorf-Astoria in New York, along with courthouses, schools and storefronts across the Midwest. Our own tower is built of it, under a white lime coating.

 

After the quarries

Demand for the stone fell in the early 1900s, and the quarries closed one by one. Most were done by about 1915. The pits filled with water. The post office closed in 1964. The lighthouse went dark in 1920, when a new light on the breakwater at the Portage Entry took over.

 

Jacobsville today is a quiet place. The old church still stands, and the red stone still shows along the shore.

 

Frequently asked questions

Where is Jacobsville, Michigan? On Keweenaw Bay, on the east side of the Keweenaw Peninsula, southeast of Houghton and south of Lake Linden.

 

Who is Jacobsville named for? John Henry Jacobs, who opened sandstone quarries here in the 1880s.

 

What is Jacobsville sandstone? A red and brown sandstone found around Lake Superior, named in 1907 for this village, where much of it was quarried.

 

Is the Jacobsville Lighthouse in Jacobsville? Yes. It is the Portage River Lighthouse, at the edge of the village. Its mailing address is Lake Linden.

 

Can I visit? You can see the lighthouse from the gravel area in front of the fence. The grounds are a private home.

 

Sources

Michigan Tech Archives, finding aid for the Portage Entry sandstone quarry records.

Michigan Tech, Keweenaw Geoheritage, "Jacobsville Quarries."

Copper Country Historical Images, Michigan Tech Archives: MS051-15-05-15 (June 21, 1958), Nara 42-233, MTU Neg 01090.

National Register of Historic Places, Jacobsville Finnish Lutheran Church, ref. 76001028.

Wikipedia, "Jacobsville Sandstone" and "John Henry Jacobs."

Last reviewed: November 2026

Quick facts

Where: Torch Lake Township, Houghton County, Michigan, on Keweenaw Bay

Named for: John Henry Jacobs (1847 to 1934), quarry owner and later mayor of Marquette

Founded: Mid-1880s, around quarries opened from 1883

Post office: 1887 to 1964. Mail now goes through Lake Linden

Known for: Jacobsville sandstone, the 1888 Finnish Lutheran church, and the lighthouse

“A valued beacon in days before 1913.”

A local newspaper on the Portage River Lighthouse and the sandstone trade, June 21, 1958