quarry to cemetery stone - types of stone quarrying

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Quarry to Cemetery Stone- Typesof StoneQuarrying- Intro

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From Quarry to Cemetery Stone - Davis CemeteryPresentation

Types of Stone Quarrying & Quarries

Types of Stone Quarrying (Dimension Stone & Aggregate Stone)Open Pit or Shelf Quarrying Photographs

Underground Mining Photographs

Boulder Quarrying Photographs

Aggregate Quarrying Photographs

Types of Stone Quarrying

Stone is usually quarried in (1) Open pits or shelf quarries, (2) Underground mining, (3) Boulder quarries, and (4)Aggregate quarries.

Stone meant for use as cemetery stones, mausoleums, buildings, and br idges is considered dimension

stone, which means the blocks of stone are cut to specific sizes or shapes.In Ol iver Bowles bookMemorial Stones(PDF), he describes the types of granites and marbles used for memorialstones in the past and the distribution of the quarries throughout the United States up to 1955 when the book was

published.In the book,The Stone Industriesby Oliver Bowles,* Bowles describes dimension stone as follows:

Dimension Stone. The oldest use of stone and the one that has become increasingly importantthrough the centuries is for building purposes. At first, rough walls were built of scattered boulders, butwith increasing knowledge of the use of tools stone was quarried from solid ledges. Before the age of

explosives and before steam and compressed air were utilized quarrying was slow and laborious.

Dimension stone is used for other purposes than for building. In ancient times a pile of stones wasraised as a memorial, and from this custom has developed the monument or headstone cut from suitablerock and carved with a fitting inscription. Stone blocks are also used for paving streets and roads and

for the manufacture of curbing. In addition, stone has many special uses, such as for electricalswitchboards and blackboards.

The other major type of stone isaggregate. Aggregate stone isproduced by using a process which breaks orcrushes the stone into various sizes for use as breakwaters, rip rap, road foundation, chicken grit, antacids, and

many other uses. Many of the old dimension stone quarries are producing aggregate today rather than dimensionstone.

Oliver Bowles, in his book,The Stone Industries, published in 1939, described crushed stone as follows:

Crushed Stone. The use of crushed or broken stone developed much later than that of dimensionstone. Stone sledged by hand, usually by convict labor, was used in road construction, and this use

increased rapidly. With the invention of cement and with mass production made possible throughexplosives, power crushers, and screens the broken-stone branch of the industry grew with phenomenalspeed. I n 1886 the output of crushed and broken stone was smaller than that of dimension stone, whilein 1930 it was thirty times as great. Concrete aggregate, road stone, and ballast are the principal

products.

(* The Stone Industries: Dimension Stone, Crushed Stone, Geology, Technology, Distribution,Utilization, by Oliver Bowles, Supervising Engineer, Building Materials Section, United States Bureauof Mines, 2nd ed., New Y ork & London: McGraw-Hi ll Book Co., Inc., 1939, pp. 4)

In Oliver Bowles book,The Stone Industries, published in 1939, he describes open-pit quarrying as follows:

Open-pit Quarrying. Most rock products of commerce are obtained from open quarries. Material
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suitable for use ordinarily is found at or near the surface of the earth, and the most economical methodof working is to open up a face of the rock ledge. As rock is separated by blasting or other means, anopening is gradually enlarged and deepened, i ts size and shape depending greatly on the rock

structures. Wide, shallow openings may be made in comparatively thin flat-lying beds, such as arecommon in limestone districts of the Middle West. Where beds are folded and tilted at high angles, asin the Appalachian region of the Eastern States, open pits may be narrow and deep. Some open-pitslate quarries of Pennsylvania have reached depths of 500 to 700 feet because the desirable beds are

relatively narrow and almost vertical. A lso, where land values are high, and property lines restricted, orwhere a heavy overburden of soil or waste rock makes lateral extensive expensive, quarries are likelyto be narrow and deep.

There are two types of quarries, the shelf quarry and the pit quarry. Sometimes a ledge of

serviceable rock stands above the level of the surrounding country, and by working into the hillside aquarry can be developed, with the floor li ttle if any lower than the surrounding land surface. Suchready access and easy transportation are advantageous. Furthermore, drainage is usually automatic, andpumping expense is avoided. Excavations of the shelf -quarry type can usually be class as low-cost

operations.

Conditions are not always so favorable; a rock deposit may not extend above the general level, and apit must be sunk. Access is gained by ladders, stairs, or mechanical hoists, and material is transportedfrom the quarry by incl ined tracks, derricks, cableway hoists, or other means. Such pit quarries also

require pumping. Though less advantageous than shelf quarries, thousands are in regular operation.When properly designed and well -equipped they may be operated at a cost which compares favorablywith that at many shelf quarries.

Underground Mining. When quarrying of rock first was begun as an industry, excavations were

made in formations readily available at the surface of the earth. Through long years of continuedoperation the most available outcrops were gradually worked away, and quarries reached increasingdepths. Many limestone beds which provide suitable stone dip at steep angles are of limited thickness.In following these beds down the dip at steep angles and are of limited thickness. In following these

beds down the dip greatly increasing depths of overburden are encountered. Consequently, in manylocalities mounting difficulties in the way of open-pit quarrying, with rising costs, have inducedoperators to change their systems of excavating and to develop underground mining methods. Manylimestone and marble, and a few granite and slate deposits, are successfully mined underground.

selective mining can best be accomplished by the underground method, for dri fts and tunnels may beconfined to serviceable rock, waste and overburden being left undisturbed. As workmen are notexposed to the weather, working conditions are also more favorable.

(* The Stone Industries: Dimension Stone, Crushed Stone, Geology, Technology, Distribution,Utilization, by Oliver Bowles, Supervising Engineer, Building Materials Section, United States Bureauof Mines, 2nd ed., New York & London: McGraw-Hi ll Book Co., Inc., 1939, pp. 17-18. This book isavailable for reading on the Internet Archive web site.)

Open Pit or Shelf Quarrying

The next photographs are of open pit or shelf quarries.

The first two photographs below are of the Bell M arble Works quarry located at Columbia in Tuolumne

County. Y ou can still see the horizontal ledge marks and the vertical dril l marks left on the rock in the quarry left

by the equipment as it cut out the stone. Even today, you can still see parts of the drill marks on old stone buildingsand some cemetery monuments. (The Bell Marble Works quarry is on the grounds of theMarble Quarry RV Park,and it is open to the public today in case youd like to visit it.) (There is a photo tour of this trip available on our

web site at: Photographic Tour of the Bell Marble Quarry.)
http://www.archive.org/details/stoneindustriesd00bowlhttp://www.marblequarry.com/http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/quarry_photo/ca-tuolumne_bell_marble_qry_photo_tour.htmlhttp://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/quarry_photo/ca-tuolumne_bell_marble_qry_photo_tour.htmlhttp://www.marblequarry.com/http://www.archive.org/details/stoneindustriesd00bowl


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Bell Marble Works Quarry located at Columbia, Tuolumne County

This photograph is of the older, lower granite quarry at Raymond in Madera County. It is now owned by

the Cold Spring Granite Co. of Cold Spring, Minnesota, which owns many quarries across the United Statestoday.I spoke with a salesman at the Cache Creek Monument Company in Woodland, and he recommended the Sierra

White granite from the Raymond quarries and the Georgia Granite for use in the Winters Cemetery because of thehigh mineral content of the water used to water the lawn at the Winters Cemetery.


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Lower, older granitequarry at Raymond which produces Sierra White Granite Upper granitequarry at Raymond Granite which produces Sierra White Granite

Boutwell Granite Quarry, Barre, Vermont Ryan-Parker Quarry on Crotch Island, Maine

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Vermont Marble Co. owned and operated many marble and granite

quarries throughout the United States even as far north as A laska. The quarry in the postcard photograph shownbelow was owned by the Vermont Marble Company.


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TheOriental Red marblequarry at Swanton, Vermont, one of the many quarries belonging to the

Vermont Marble Company, Pr octor, Vermont Bedfor d, Indiana - Opening Quar ry " Key Block," Bedford, I ndiana

Underground M ining

Postcard photo of the exterior entrance into the Italian Marble Quarry, Brandon, Vermont One of the Deep Marble Quarries in West Rutland, Vermont

View of interi or of one of the marblequarr ies at West Rutl and, Vermont

Q t C t St T fSt Q i I t


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Exterior view of entrance to the YuleM arble Quarry near Marble, Colorado (from Prairie, Peak and

Plateau: A Guide to theGeology of Colorado, Colorado Geological Survey Bulletin 32,by John and HalkaChronic, 1972, pg. 99) Postcard photograph of the interior 3-room view of the Y uleMarble Quarry located near Marble, Colorado

Boulder Quarrying

Another type of quarry is the boulder quarry from where blocks of stone are cut from boulders.

This second photograph below shows where they quarried a boulder that was located near the Bell Marble Works

quarry in Columbia, Tuolumne County.

QuarrytoCemeteryStone TypesofStoneQuarrying Intro


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Boulder quarry of Academy Grani te Company, near Academy, F resno County Boulder quarr ied at the Bel l Marble Works Quarry, Columbia, Tuolumne County

Aggregate QuarryingThe majority of quarries operating today are aggregate quarries.Below are some photographs of aggregatequarries.

Crusher Plant and Stone Quarry, Ill inois State Penitentiary, Joli et, IllinoisSt. Louis Limestonein Bussen Quarr ies, Inc., Quarry, south of Koch, St. Louis County, Missouri (f rom Limestones andDolomites in theSt. Louis Ar ea,by Norman S. Hinchey, et al., 1947)

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