GLADSTONE – If you owned a valuable collection, what would you do with it? Keep it for your heirs? Sell it?

There was no question in the mind of Dennis Pace when he decided what to do with the approximately 300-piece collection of Marble Arms merchandise, literature and catalogues that he had amassed over the span of 30 years. He would simply give it away.

And the lucky receiver? The Michigan Historical Center in Lansing.

Pace, who is the chairman of the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance Board in Lansing, said he became interested in Marble products after meeting Jack Oakley, of Traverse City, at a knife show.

“Jack was the foremost expert in Marble knives and other merchandise,” said Pace. “When we met at the knife show, I spent the next two hours at his table as he showed me his products.”

What followed was Pace’s interest in all things Marble.

Three years ago, Pace said he approached members of the Michigan Historical Foundation and asked them if they knew anything about Marble Arms. When they responded that they really had no idea, he gave them a “show and tell” demonstration of his collection at the Michigan Historical Center.

“That led to me donating my collection to the Center and got the staff interested in using the collection as a basis for an exhibit about Marble Arms and other outdoor inventions,” Pace said.

The exhibit is scheduled to open at the Michigan Historical Center on Nov. 7 and will remain there through the end of August 2016. Negotiations are already in process to move the collection, once it closes in Lansing, to the Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee where it will remain as a permanent exhibit.

“Although the Negaunee museum is a tribute to the iron industry, Marble belongs to the U.P.,” said Moberg. “It’s all part of U.P. history.”

Pace and Dennis Moberg, of Gladstone, are both life members of the Marble Knife Club and would occasionally meet at knife shows throughout the state. It was Moberg who assisted Pace in the appraisal of his “six-figure” collection of Marble merchandise.

Preparations for the Lansing exhibit began months ago when Pace, along with Linda Endersby, director of the Michigan Historical Center, arrived in Gladstone in February to tour the Marble Arms plant. They both returned in mid-June and met with several Marble Arms collectors in the area, including Moberg and Arne Dunathan and his son, Clint, both of Escanaba. The senior Dunathan is the author of “The Encyclopedia of Knives and Sporting Collectibles,” an extensive history of Marble Arms founder, Webster Marble, and his vast development of Marble products and merchandise.

Webster Marble began his career as a timber cruiser and surveyor. He arrived in Gladstone around the same time as the town was founded in 1887 and realized immediately the potential that was there. With the deep harbor and Soo Line Railroad, Marble was ready to cash in on the development that was in process. Five years later, he developed his first invention – a folding pocket axe. Because of his experience in the woods as a surveyor, he realized the dangers of an axe with an open blade to the woodsmen who carried them.

With the invention of the safety axe, the Marble Axe Company was born.

Scores of inventions followed, including an impressive line of knives, compasses, waterproof match boxes (Match Safe) and his famous “Game Getter” rifle with a folding handle. Many of Marble’s inventions are on display at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

As the group discussed the proposed exhibit in Lansing, Engersby said the focus on the exhibit will provide a springboard for innovations developed throughout the state of Michigan. All members of the group spoke about the “genius” that was Webster Marble, not only in his product development, but also in his advertising and promotion methods that put the Upper Peninsula – and especially Gladstone – on the map. To assist him in his business, Marble sought the help of Gladstone financiers, James T. Jones and Frank Van Cleve.

When most people think of Michigan, the innovation of Henry Ford and the subsequent automobile industry and Thomas Edison, who grew up in Port Huron and invented the lightbulb, phonograph and motion picture camera, come to mind.

“People don’t usually think of the U.P. as a place for innovation in Michigan,” said Pace. “But thanks to Webster Marble, his merchandise was marketed all over this country and other countries as well.”

Stories abound that Charles Lindbergh carried a Marble match-safe on board his first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. President Theodore Roosevelt carried a Marble compass, as well as Admirals Perry and Byrd when they journeyed to the North and South Poles.

But as impressive as Marble was with his inventions, his ability to market his products was what grew his business.

With the help of his son, William, he advertised in just about every outdoor magazine on the market and even wrote regular guest columns for some.

Moberg explained that Marble would advertise a product in one magazine and gave a nonexistent address in Gladstone. Then he would advertise the same product in another magazine with a different address.

“Whenever orders came in, Marble kept track of which addresses received the best response and that’s where he put his advertising dollars,” Moberg said.

Up to the early 1900s, fishing and hunting were the means to feed a family and were not considered to be recreational activities. But inventors like Marble brought change to the family lifestyle.

One innovator was Jack Heddon of Dowagiac, Mich., the inventor of the first artificial lure.

“Up to that time, there were only flies and metal spoons used in fishing,” Pace said. “Then one day, Heddon was sitting on a dock whittling when he dropped a piece of wood into the water. That’s when he noticed that fish were hitting on the piece of wood.”

Another was William Shakespear Jr., of Kalamazoo, who invented the level-winding fishing reel the same year Marble came out with his safety axe.

“These were not merely random events,” Pace added. “There were some very, very smart people who were paying attention.”

Moberg agreed, saying, “That’s what opened the fishing and hunting camps to all sportsmen, not only to provide self-sufficiency, but then hunting and fishing suddenly became recreational opportunities. It’s what brought folks out of the cities and into the outdoors and entire families piled their luggage and picnic baskets into the trunks of their cars and headed to the Upper Peninsula.”

Although no one is really sure why Marble chose to remain in Gladstone to grow his business, Endersby offered a suggestion, saying, “Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was the perfect place for recreation back then and it remains a popular place today.”