Vermont, Day - day 5

Monday, September 08, 2008, quarry visit

M. What a interesting place, the Rock of Ages, with a great tour to the open-pit granite quarry, the processing center where slabs are finished/carved/etched to order, and the welcome center for a movie about the process. Even a souvenir piece off the old block! Fascinating and they are so proud of their product.

The current pit is 600 feet deep -- which is as far as the crane can reach to lift out slabs. The granite vein runs some 8 miles deep under a 5 acre surface area. They can continue removing granite for the next 4,500 years at the rate they are going.

The pit workers / crew arrive at 7:00 am and are lowered in big yellow buckets to the quarry floor where they work until lunch, come up for a break, then back down to continue work until three. They are paid $20-30 an hour, or as one man said looking into the pit, “You couldn’t pay me enough.” In case the bucket lift isn’t working, there are stairs zigzagging up the cliff face; at present, only a 400 ft climb up. The pit is worked ten months of the year weather permitting.

It was a dizzyingly sharp drop with no soft landing! The men in the pit measured less than 1/4” between my fingers, they were that far away. While we were watching, a slab was pulled up by one of the cranes and even though I knew it was huge, I had a hard time discerning it from the cliff face -- it looked so relatively small. The tour guide said it weighed 250 tons.

The tour ended at the process site. No small building in itself, it measure the length of two football fields plus. Inside was a buzz of activity from artists carving out intricate designs, to clients approving a work in process on the main floor, to overhead cranes moving pieces from place to place or turning them, to polishers, to cutters, and knappers. What a fascinating business.

The quarry is one of several they own in PA, VT, NH, NC, SC, one out West, another in Canada, and one in Russia. Stone removed from each site is different in color from white, to gray, to rose, to black.

W: After the quarry, we continued east to check out the site / location of my class this week. The attached photo is of the post office in East Topsham, VT. Now that’s a small town. We arrived via 5 miles of dirt road. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long week.

After checking out the facilities, we drove eastward, stopping at a truck stop in River Wells, VT, for lunch. Margaret had a slab of meatloaf, mashed potatoes (scrape off gravy), pickled beets and a yeast roll hot from the oven and the size of Vermont – the day’s special; I opted for an elk burger. Actually it wasn’t too bad. Better than bison or venison. We crossed over into New Hampshire just east of I-91. Saw our first New Hampshire covered bridge. Built in 1869 (before our house), it was in good condition though it was closed to all but foot traffic in 1999. The arched trusses were 16 ply and the “nails” holding it all together were the original wood pegs, no worse for wear after all these years.

M. Odds and ends: Overheard a man saying he was laying a trap line that. I asked the guys what they could be trapping. “Bear.” “No, bear hunting season is later.” You eat bear? “They do, as the Indians once did.” Taste? “Had it once -- very greasy, so best eaten hot. Wouldn’t do it again, but I had to be polite.”

We’ve seen lots of moose-crossing signs, but no moose; deer, a flock of wild turkeys dining in a harvested field, geese, ducks, but not very many birds; lots of trees, some showing the first blush of fall, luminous against the green. There are rocky streams and rivers. Towns boast houses of various vintages and conditions and even the dirt back roads are populated.

W: Tuesday p.m.
Had my first day of photo class. Guess what? I’m the only student! Actually not completely true. I was the only student, so to spread the “wealth of information”, they invited a local charity group to send one of their instructors to learn along with me. But the curriculum is patterned after my “needs”. Super!

The class is being conducted in the middle of “nowhere”. I asked how they happened to end up there; their response: We wanted to get away.” Well they did. It is 30 miles from our RV site, but only if you take the “short-cut” via a dirt road (5 miles of dirt). When I arrived this morning, it was raining to beat the band, so I took the long way (paved) and added about 15 minutes to the commute.

The good news, it was everything I had hoped for and more. I learned enough today to pay for the class and there’s 3 days to go!

The photos are from several days. The first is the original quarry in Barre – started in 1812. The second is the quarry. The depth of the quarry is ONLY 400 feet deep.

The third photo is the working quarry – 600 feet deep, although the photo only shows the first 300 feet (long walk up!).

The fourth photo is inside the processing building with a stone worker carving. The buyers appeared later to review his progress. The fifth photo is a view down the building ½ of the building equivalent to 2 football fields.

The sixth photo is the post office near where my class is being held. To say it’s a small town is a true understatement.

The last photo is a covered bridge we found in New Hampshire, just over the state line from Vermont. It was built in 1829 and was used until 1989. Obviously pretty new and in good condition.