Wikipedia

List of quarries in the United States

This is a list of notable quarries and areas of quarrying in the United States. A number of these are historic quarries listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), ranging from relatively ancient archeological sites to places having pre-World War II activity. This includes major areas of continuing, modern quarrying.

According to Marble.com, in 2016 there were 276 quarries producing natural stone in 34 states, and states producing the most granite were Texas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Georgia.[1] The term "quarry" refers also to sites producing aggregate, molding sand, or other resources besides cut stone.

There were numerous more quarries in the U.S. during the 1800s and 1900s than are operational now. In Oregon, a state with much less activity than Vermont and other bigger quarrying states, there were more than 250 quarries operational at one time or another. In 1906 the state mineralogist of California reported on 52 granite quarrying areas in 17 counties.[2]

Many quarries were opened temporarily to provide stone for one or a few local or regional construction projects, but could not compete later when railroads allowed for economical transportation of heavy building materials to the area. Quarrying spurred the construction of railways and vice versa, from the 1826 construction of the Granite Railway in Massachusetts to the modern day.

Quarries in the U.S.

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Quarries in the United States, former and current, include:

Arizona

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Cochise Marble Company, Bowie, Arizona, on-site quarrying, blocks, aggregates, calcium carbonate 99.5%, established 1908 in the Chiricahua Mountains; colors: white, grey, black, blue

Arkansas

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California

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Colorado

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Connecticut

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Florida

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Georgia

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Hawaii

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Idaho

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Illinois

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  • Thornton Quarry, just south of Chicago, Illinois. One of the largest aggregate quarries in the world, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, 0.5 miles wide, and up to 450 feet deep, site of a Silurian reef. Quarried since 1836. The quarry also acts as an emergency flood control reservoir as part of Chicago Deep Tunnel project.

Indiana

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  • Marengo warehouse, in Marengo, Indiana, formerly a limestone quarry, now one of the largest subterranean storage facilities in the nation, with nearly 4,000,000 square feet (370,000 m2) space. It began as an open pit quarry in 1886 due in part to its proximity to a railroad. Underground room and pillar mining began in 1936. Leased storage began in 1986. Used by the U.S. Department of Defense for storage of 10,000,000 MRE meals, by Bridgestone for storage of 400,000 tires, and by Controlled Pharming Ventures for growing tomatoes and corn.

Iowa

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Kansas

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Kentucky

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  • Mega Cavern, a cavern in Louisville, Kentucky created by limestone quarrying over 42 years during the middle of the 20th century. Deemed the largest building in the state, it has 4,000,000 square feet (370,000 m2) and is now used for tourism including zip lines, for storage and other business.

Maine

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Maryland

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Massachusetts

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Michigan

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Minnesota

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Missouri

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Montana

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Nebraska

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New Jersey

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New York

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  • Dutchess Quarry Cave Site, Goshen, NY, NRHP-listed, "in the Town of Goshen in Orange County, New York. It is midway between the village of Goshen and Florida, at the junction of NY 17A and Quarry Road (Orange County Route 68), built into the side of a 580-foot (177 m) hill known as Mount Lookout. In the 1960s, archaeologists digging at the site found caves with artifacts left by hunter-gatherers 12,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age. A Paleo-Indian fluted point, a very rare stone tool, was among them.[1] At the time of its discovery it was the oldest such site east of the Mississippi.[2] The site has been at the center of a battle between local archaeologists and the Pleasant Valley-based Dutchess Quarry and Supply Company, which actively produces dolomite gravel on the site."
  • Tuckahoe, New York, in Westchester County, first site of large-scale quarrying of Tuckahoe marble, also known as Inwood and Westchester marble, found in southern New York state and western Connecticut as part of the Inwood Formation
  • Walcott–Rust quarry, in Herkimer County near Russia, New York, a fossil quarry whose fossils supported the first definitive description of trilobites' soft appendages.

North Carolina

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North Dakota

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  • Lynch Quarry Site, North Dakota, NRHP-listed and a U.S. National Historic Landmark, a flint quarry that was "a major source of flint found at archaeological sites across North America, and it has been estimated that the material was mined there from 11,000 B.C. to A.D. 1600."

Ohio

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Pennsylvania

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Rhode Island

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  • Ochee Spring Quarry, Johnston, Rhode Island, NRHP-listed, "a source of steatite (soapstone), a relatively soft stone easily workable into containers. Native Americans are known to have used this quarry.[2] A study of the site conducted in the mid-1980s concluded that the quarry was probably worked in an organized manner, to produce containers in a variety of size. Items made from this quarry have been found across southern New England."

South Carolina

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South Dakota

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Tennessee

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Texas

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Utah

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Vermont

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Virginia

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Washington

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Wisconsin

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Rock quarry in West Salem
Romskog Quarry
A triple homicide in 2021 took place at this quarry[5]

American Samoa

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  • Lau'agae Ridge Quarry, Tula, AS, NRHP-listed, "a prehistoric stone quarry on the eastern side of the island of Tutuila in the United States territory of American Samoa"
  • Tataga-Matau Fortified Quarry Complex (AS-34-10), near the village of Leone on Tutuila in American Samoa, NRHP-listed, "a complex consisting of a series of basalt quarries and structures that archaeologists have interpreted as having a military defensive purpose. The site has been known since at least 1927, and was first formally surveyed in the 1960s. Features of the site include extraction pits, from which basalt was quarried for the manufacture of stone tools and weapons, as well as domestic features such as grinding stones. Archaeologists in 1985 noted that some of the sites features were, including trenches and terracing, were made in areas that were unsuitable for the production of stone tools, and closely resemble known military defensive structures in other areas of the Samoan islands.

Marianas

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "About Marble and Granite Quarries in America". Marble.Com. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  2. ^ Peggie P. Perazzo; George Perazzo. ""California Granite Quarries - List and Location of Individual Quarries" in Stone Quarries and Beyond". Retrieved April 25, 2019.. Derived from "The Structural and Industrial Materials of California", Bulletin No. 38, by Lewis E. Auburn, State Mineralogist, San Francisco, California, 1906
  3. ^ Wendy Frontiero; Vivienne Lasky; Peter Stott; Sarah Zimmerman (August 26, 1982). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Fall River Multiple Resource Area". Retrieved April 25, 2019. Downloadable from MACRIS (click on "NR")]
  4. ^ Nelson, Charles W.; Susan Zeik (1976-11-02). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Jasper Stone Company and Quarry" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2013-12-08. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ https://www.wizmnews.com/2023/05/16/thao-trial-for-triple-murder-near-west-salem-ready-to-start-in-june/
  6. ^ "Sheboygan Valley Land and Lime Company Kilns". Wisconsin Historical Society. January 2012. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
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