Away with the winter covers! Away with the winter sweatshirts! Away with the winter bathrobe! The heat and humidity have finally caught up with us! We haven’t seen temperatures like this since the middle of March when we were in Florida. Going to take some time for us to adjust to this. We’ll adjust. Or just go find someplace that is cooler. Where I have no idea. As my Mom always says, It is what it is.
Today we’re just staying put since tonight we have a pot luck supper in the park followed by fireworks. Yipee! Barbara is busy making her dish. While I on the other hand am just puttering around doing odds and ends. I don’t want to push it and have problems with my back again. Slow and steady is the way to go to I’ve been told.
It’s early evening and we just finished our RV picnic and what a spread of food for everyone. There was hot dogs cooked in beer, chili, baked ziti, sausage with peppers and onions, macaroni and cheese, watermelon, fruit salad, chips and so much more.
This is the group from the park that gathered for the picnic.
This is Barbara with our next door neighbors, Bob and Connie.
I can honestly say I’m good now food wise probably till lunch time tomorrow!
Now back to our travels. Yesterday we shared with you our visit to Hope Cemetery which is located in Barre, Vermont, the Granite Capital of the World. Hope Cemetery serves not only as a place to remember those who work outside the craft and are buried there, but also as a tribute to the stone cutters and artisans interred amongst the sculptures they created while they lived.
Barre, unfortunately, is known for having an uncommonly high death rate which is directly related to the industry that made it famous. Silicosis, a respiratory disease that is caused by inhaling granite dust, led to an abnormal number of deaths in the area. When the Spanish Flu swept through the area, many knew that death could be just around the corner and got to work designing their own tombstones. This tradition has carried on ever since and about 75 percent of all of the tombstones found in Hope Cemetery were carved by the occupants of the graves they sit above.
Furthermore, all of the 10,000 tombstones and still counting are mandated to be made out of Barre Granite. In addition, a majority of them are made by the artisans and sculptors who have worked and work today at Rock of Ages. That is where we are going now. Now I know what some of you are probably thinking, do you two have a thing for rocks? First, the Granite museum in Maine and now Rock of Ages? Not really, it’s just that unusual and historical places hold a special fascination for us.
So we were off to Rock of Ages. Not hard to find with a sign like this.
A quick turn in and you know you know you are in the right place when you spot the
logo on the building. This building is the main production facility and is the size of two football fields.
Within its walls is where the many tombstones and monuments from simple to elaborate are sculptured. Behind this building (in the picture above it is the building to the far left) is another building that is strictly used for the construction of mausoleums.
Rock of Ages is the grand name of one of Vermont’s oldest quarrying operations which is also known as the E.L Smith Quarry which started quarrying granite in 1880 and it’s
been excavating the same site in Barre ever since. Let’s begin with an actual tour of the quarry. This we signed up for at the visitors center. To accommodate the growing tourism generated by the quarries, Rock of Ages built a 2,800-square-foot Visitors Center in 1962. By 1967, more than 100,000 visitors were coming to Barre each year to view the quarries and Craftsman Center (factory) at Rock of Ages. On May 1, 2004, Rock
of Ages opened a new 5,000-square-foot building, which houses a new Visitors Center and Memorial Design Studio. Up the walkway we went to sign up for the tour.
Our tour guide for the journey was another of God’s beautiful people named Pam seen here at a stop on our tour of the quarry.
Once we were all on board she drove us up the road to the quarry.
Once at the quarry, we were escorted to an observation outpost. Pam explained that this quarry is called a deep hole dimension quarry, it’s a large cavernous hole and nearly 600 feet deep. At 50 or 60 square acres in surface area, it’s the largest quarry of its kind still operating.
The stone here is known as Barre granite. The characteristics of this stone make it good for engraving, which is why it’s often used in statuary and memorials. The Barre granite face is a beautiful solid grey stone. Natural seams in the rock run horizontally and where groundwater seeps out it stains the granite a dark color, making streaks that trail down
towards the bottom where they meet with the upwell of opaque turquoise water (currently the water is some 400 feet deep which when necessary can be pumped out).
Geologists from MIT measured the deposit of granite in this location and discovered that it’s four miles long, about two miles wide, and ten miles thick. At current recovery rates, Pam stated that there’s another 4,500 years of stone in the ground. How’s that for job security!
It is estimated that as many as 3,500 men worked in the quarries in Barre during the 1900’s, and the same number toiled in the nearby factories. But, over the years, the industry has consolidated. This is a picture of Graniteville today, now just a sleepy little town with only a small number permanent inhabitants. 
As of right now Rock of Ages is the only quarrying operation in Barre. Currently there are approximately 27 men working the quarry. They work until winter when the rock face is covered with either frozen water or snow at which time all work is halted since the conditions are deemed unsafe and the men are laid off until the spring thaw.
To extract the granite out of the ground, it is quarried into blocks or what is called tables. (in the picture below, follow the ladder down, it is partial hidden by the tree branch and that is the current section now being worked). Due to the structure and composition of granite, it is never quarried by blasting as this would fracture the granite into unusable pieces. Rather, it is carefully removed by drilling. When granite is drilled, vertical holes are bored into the structure
approximately one inch apart and up to depths of twenty feet. The granite that remains between the holes is later removed by secondary drilling.
A block or table of granite can weigh as much as ten tons. This is a picture of one piece of a table, a total of 25 of these pieces would make up one complete table of granite. Anyone need a paperweight!
To lift the tables from their location in the quarry a derrick is used like the one below. There are several different derricks in the quarry interconnected and supported
by over 15 miles of steel cable whose ends ultimately terminate in a block of granite somewhere in the quarry. Since it is physically impossible to see what a derrick is doing during operation all lifts are coordinated by a lift master stationed in the lift shack. Due to the noise in the quarry communication is by hand and whistles.
The workers themselves are transported into and out of the quarry using a steel cage also raised and lowered by the derrick.
In addition, you will note a series of wooden ladders against the quarry walls. These ladders are there as a means of emergency exit. They are made of wood because of the danger of a possible lightning strike.
Once the granite blocks are lifted out they are inspected, weighted, and measured for size and then given a number that is entered in inventory. The blocks are left alongside the quarry road waiting for a prospective buyer. A prospective buyer will then choose
a block from inventory according to their needs, and that block is then assigned to them. Or a customer wanting a memorial will have one chosen for them by the sculpture who is going to sculpt the piece and knows what is needed. It is not unusual to see numbered blocks on both sides of the quarry road throughout the summer but Pam explained to us they would all be gone by spring of next year. Then the process would begin again.
Tour finished, we headed back to the Visitor’s Center where we discovered something interesting. Any Star Trek fans out there? Read on.
We also discovered a time piece that is sure to stand the test of time.
How about some plates and such that you don’t have to worry about breaking when traveling.
How about a granite bowling alley? It never quite caught on. Why? Balls kept shattering when they hit the surface of the alley!
One last thing to share today, my namesake in granite. That’s right my ancestor, Robert Burns, standing tall in Barre, Vermont. 
How did he get here? The date was July 21, 1896, and the Burns Club of Barre, Vermont, met to celebrate the centennial of Robert Burns’ death. At that meeting, the idea of erecting a monument to Burns was discussed and endorsed. The entire town became involved in the project and three years later the monument was ready to be dedicated. On the day of dedication, eighteen thousand people witnessed the events of the day. There was a procession, fully a mile in length, which included the Royal Scots Band from Montreal. The orator of the day was the Honorable Wendell Phillips Stafford of St. Johnsbury. Well, how about that!
Time now for fireworks so I’m signing off. Tomorrow we’ll come back to Rock of Ages and we’ll tour the main plant. We’ll discover how a monument is made from start to finish. It’s really quite an elaborate process we found out. We don’t know where you are but if the temperature is anything like here, let’s all think cool thoughts and maybe we can bring the heat index down a degree or two! Finally, as always, a closing thought for each of us to ponder:
As always, if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God. After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.
Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye. Till tomorrow.
These are the voyages of Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans. Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before
"On The Road of Retirement" 
Loved this blog. Fascinating operation. I toured a granite mine in Elberton, Ga. many years ago then a few years ago we saw one near My. Airy, NC (AKA Mayberry RFD) Very interesting and dangerous work. Thanks for bringing back those memories.
LikeLike