The Basic Chemical Corporation was organized by Carl Morse in the early 1950s. They bought the Old (Marble) Mill Site from Elmer Bair and installed a rock crusher, intending to make a number of products from the marble left there by the Vermont Co. These were to include marble chips for roofs, smaller pieces for macadam and cement work, chicken grits, dust for strengthening and whitening plaster, and fertilizer for sweeting sour ground.
This was not as successful as it was hoped it would be, and was leased to Vance Baker of Grand Junction in 1957. He now runs it during the summer months and confines most of the work to the making of marble chips. He expects to enlarge his operations to the point where he can cut and sell building blocks, using the trimmings for chips.
The Crystal River flows on down the valley another 3½ miles through Prospect Ranch, once a part of the Osgood Estate of Redstone, purchased from it by the Darien Brothers—Henry, James, and Gus. Now it is a popular summer resort, Prospect Ranch Cabins, owned by Jim and Gus Darien and run by the Gus Dariens of Carbondale.
Any article or series of articles treating of the advantages of the Crystal River Valley as a vacationing playground would not be complete without mentioning one of the prettiest camping and fishing spots in the state, Bogan Flats—located five miles below Marble. The Forestry Department supplies the tables, seats, fireplaces, and restrooms. There are many quiet nooks in the river where the ingenious trout lurks and seldom does any fisherman go away empty-handed.
Next, the river flows through Chair Mountain Ranch, also once a part of the Osgood Estate. The Earl Z. McCullys bought it from Mrs. Lucille Osgood McDonald in 1943, had it ready to open as a guest ranch in 1947, and ran it as such until the fall of 1952 when they sold it to the Ray Somers of Mountain View, Calif., and Mr. and Mrs. (formerly Mrs. Lola Kemp) C. H. Patterson of Farmington, N. Mex.
[Illustration: PERFECT MARBLE CORE—this speaks more eloquently for quality of marble produced up Yule Canyon than any words possibly could. In “pulling” cores they usually break at much shorter lengths. —_Photo by_ Henry L. Johnson, Marble, Colo.]