MIA Resets Quarry Tour

The following quarries are on the tour list:

• E.L. Smith Quarry (Rock of Ages) – The site covers a surface area of 50 acres and is about 600 feet in depth. It is believed to be the world’s largest dimension “deep-hole” granite quarry. It accounts for approximately 75 percent of the total production of Barre granite quarried each year.

• Stanstead Gray Quarry (Rock of Ages) – The quarry, which has been in operation since 1880, is located west of Stanstead, Quebec, in the Estrie Region. The stone (light to medium grey, medium- and coarse-grained granodiorite) is mainly used to produce monuments.

• Danby Quarry (Vermont Quarries) – This is the biggest underground marble quarry in the world, over a mile long with a footprint of 25 acres and reaching six levels deep. Five varieties of marble are produced here.

• Vermont Verde Antique Rochester Quarry (Vermont Verde Antique LLC) – Vermont Verde Antique has been quarried in the Green Mountains of Vermont since the early 1900s. Serpentinite, unlike calcium carbonate-based marbles, is capable of maintaining a polished finish in exterior exposures. This proven weather resistance has kept this material in high demand for the past century, and its classic look makes it one of the most widely recognized architectural facade materials.

• Bethel White Quarry (Rock of Ages) – A prime producer of a pure even-grain material, this quarry produces 225,000 cubic feet of blocks per year. Bethel White was supplied for the Mormon Bountiful Temple and the Grand America Hotel in Utah (built to serve as a conference center for the 2002 Winter Olympics).

The tour also takes in two museums on both sides of the border.

The GranitExpo & Museum of Stanstead combines a permanent showroom featuring our most respected manufacturers and artists, as well as museum honoring the past of our manufacturing community. The concept reunites the past, the present and the future of the granite industry in Stanstead.

The Vermont Marble Museum features over 100 exhibits, including mineralogy, geology, immigrant and industrial history, an on-site sculptor and a sculpture gallery. The Sutherland Falls Quarry is only a quarter-mile stroll from the museum parking lot; the viewing area also overlooks the original Proctor quarry.

Registration costs for the tour are $199 for MIA members and $249 for non-members.

Attendees registering before Aug. 15th also earn a chance at a free airline ticket on Southwest Airlines to Manchester, N.H. for the event, compliments of WTT.

“We want to say thank you to the industry for supporting Water Treatment Technologies over the years,” said WTT president Paula Perry, “and I urge my industry colleagues to join us for the quarry tours.”

The hotel for the event is the Comfort Inn at Maplewood in Montpelier, Vt. To book rooms, call the MIA’s Megan Knight at 440-250-9222.

To register for the tour online, go here. For more information, contact the MIA at 440-250-9222.