Redstone Quarry

Mid-day on Friday I found myself with my camera on my shoulder wandering the trails of the abandoned Redstone Quarry. With the sun high in the sky, this is the worst time of day for making pictures. I've also been to the quarry several times, but more than anything I needed to walk off a tough morning. Getting outside to take pictures always makes whatever burden I'm carrying melt away. It's the zen of the shutter click.

I stopped by the abandoned bath house and made a couple of images.



Poking around in the woods nearby always yields something interesting like this bed frame.



Mountain biking in the area once, I found a huge green granite pillar, but the last time I was here I couldn't locate it. Local trails expert and friend Paul Kirsch to the rescue with some cell phone guidance.



The granite column is remarkable, polished smooth and almost three feet across at it's base. The monster sized lathe that turned this column is about a quarter of a mile away. It's amazing to think about freshly quarried granite blocks being moved around the site and then turned into architectural columns. A railroad line used to move the granite out of the quarry and Paul pointed me towards this set of ties.



Later Paul send a map that still shows the old railroad spur. I've marked it with a P signifying the approximate location of the stone pillar and the Q showing the area where the primary quarries were located.



You can find a set of my images from Conway's Redstone Quarry on Flickr and learn more at The Backside of America from a piece I contributed back in December.