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Home > Illinois
The Great River Road: Visitor’s Guide to the Middle Mississippi River Valley. “The Great River Road is one of America’s national treasures. greatriverroad.com’s coverage extends from Hannibal in the north to Ste. Genevieve in the south and brings our readers information on both the Illinois and Missouri sides of the river.
greatriverroad.com covers the following regions of the Mississippi River Valley:
A. Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway: Illinois counties of Calhoun, Jersey, and Madison.
B. French Colonial Country: Illinois counties of St. Clair, Monroe, and Randolph, Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri
C Meeting the Missouri: St. Charles County, Missouri
D. Riverboat Country: Missouri counties of Pike, Ralls, and southern Marion
There are several great limestone quarries in operation around Chicago and other areas as far away as Kankakee and Joliet today. Some of these quarries cover hundreds of areas in area with some as much as 300 feet in depth. In addition to these active quarries, there are many others quarries that have been abandoned, some located within Chicago, which have been filed with excavated material and refuse.
These quarries for many years supplied limestone blocks used in the construction of buildings and sidewalks in the region. The blocks were also used to protect the lake front. Crushed limestone is used today to make concrete that is used in the construction of buildings, streets, sidewalks, and highways. Farms use limestone dust to spread over their fields to help increase the fertility of the fields.
Palos Hills - Physical Geography (This web site includes a photograph of a former claypit, near the intersection of 111th and Southwest Highway, Worth, Cook County, Illinois, which is locally known to some as the “Worth Quarry.”)
The Great River Road: Visitor’s Guide to the Middle Mississippi River Valley. “The Great River Road is one of America’s national treasures. greatriverroad.com’s coverage extends from Hannibal in the north to Ste. Genevieve in the south and brings our readers information on both the Illinois and Missouri sides of the river.
greatriverroad.com covers the following regions of the Mississippi River Valley:
A. Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway: Illinois counties of Calhoun, Jersey, and Madison.
B. French Colonial Country: Illinois counties of St. Clair, Monroe, and Randolph, Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri
C Meeting the Missouri: St. Charles County, Missouri
D. Riverboat Country: Missouri counties of Pike, Ralls, and southern Marion
Heritage Quarries Recreation Area, Lemont, Illinois. The Heritage Quarries Recreation Area adds an additional 3.8 mile trail extension to the existing Illinois & Michigan Canal trails. You can read about the Heritage Quarries Recreation Area in the Village of Lemont brochure [PDF].
The Illinois and Michigan Canal: A Channel to Progress and Prosperity, on the Illinois Periodicals Online (IPO) web site.
The following are some of the subjects covered in the history section of this site: Who Was Here; Building the Canal; Cities and Towns; Environment; Agriculture, Industry & Waterways. (Since the below quote was obtained, the web site has been restructured. Originally, the following quote was taken from the “Agriculture, Industry, and Waterways” section. The quote below is used with the permission of the Canal Corridor Association.)
Industry
“In digging the canal, large quantities of a magnesium-rich limestone called dolomite were exposed. Within a few years a new industry was born, and dozens of quarries opened in Lemont, Lockport and Joliet, creating thousands of new jobs. This heavy, durable stone was easily and cheaply transported on the canal, and was used in many buildings throughout the corridor, including the Joliet Penitentiary and the Chicago Water Tower. By about 1900 the local building-stone industry was largely eclipsed when superior Indiana stone came to be favored. Today the regional stone industry produces crushed stone, used in the construction industry and for erosion control along lakes. Quarries still operate in the corridor at McCook, Romeoville, Joliet, and Lemont.”
"The (toy model) JMJ Railroad (originally called Jamestown Railway) started in 1968 as a service to the rock quarries along the Bluffs in Illinois to carry rock to their loading docks on the Mississippi River at East. St. Louis. The original owners were two brothers, James and Steven Greathouse...."
"As towns continued to pop up and grow around the rock quarries and coal mines, the need to provide a form of transportation for the workers was evident. Passenger service began first to provide the companies with workers, then was soon expanded to provide transportation from town to town. By the mid 1970's the JMJ Railroad had track connecting all the area towns to East. St. Louis and held the lease to the ferry operation between East. St. Louis, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri."
Lemont, Illinois - About Lemont, presented by the Lemont Village Government.
Lewis University Regional History Collection - At Christian Brothers University. The Illinois & Michigan (I & M) Canal and Regional History Collection.
Naper Settlement - 19th Century Historic Museum Village, Naperville, Illinois, presented by the Naperville Heritage Society.
Southernmost Illinois History: of Alexander, Pulaski, Union, Johnson, Massac and nearby counties.
Naper Settlement - 19th Century Historic Museum Village, Naperville, Illinois.
"This Gothic revival building, with great flying buttresses, is faced with Indiana limestone and has a base inset with stones from famous structures throughout the world, such as the Westminister Abbey, the Taj Mahal, and the Great Wall of China." This site lists the origin of the 136 stones placed in the exterior of the Tribune Tower from all around the world.
The following are some of the subjects covered in the history section of this site: Who Was Here; Building the Canal; Cities and Towns; Environment; Agriculture, and Industry & Waterways. The following quote is taken from the "Agriculture, Industry, and Waterways" section of this site. (Please note that this section has been replaced by the various sections in the “History” section of the web site.)
<http://www.canalcor.org/canalhistory.html>Industry
"In digging the canal, large quantities of a magnesium-rich limestone called dolomite were exposed. Within a few years a new industry was born, and dozens of quarries opened in Lemont, Lockport and Joliet, creating thousands of new jobs. This heavy, durable stone was easily and cheaply transported on the canal, and was used in many buildings throughout the corridor, including the Joliet Penitentiary and the Chicago Water Tower. By about 1900 the local building-stone industry was largely eclipsed when superior Indiana stone came to be favored. Today the regional stone industry produces crushed stone, used in the construction industry and for erosion control along lakes. Quarries still operate in the corridor at McCook, Romeoville, Joliet, and Lemont."
"The coral reefs belong to the middle Silurian, - the Niagaran Series, - part of a geologic complex surrounding the Michigan Basin, and taking its name from the famous waterfall between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. It's amazing to think that same rock underlies parts of Illinois. But it does!
"Following the Chicago fire of 1871 the need for more substantial fireproof buildings was obvious. Stone and brick this time! Much of the stone used was a dolomite belonging to the Silurian Period. Quarries near Joliet and Lemont produced great quantities - calling it 'Joliet Marble' or 'Athens marble.' (The famous surviving Chicago Water Tower was made of it prior to the fire). It weathers to a pleasing yellowish color, but in the process, has also been known to exfoliate - not desired by most architects! Limestone from Indiana soon replaced the local Silurian dolomite as a building stone. No peeling from it."
The types of building stone available in the area are siliceous limestone, argillaceous limestone, and sandstone. The limestone on Cooperas creek was used for heavy work. A large amount of sandstone was quarried on the west side of the east fork of Little Wabash river. This sandstone was used in the construction of the of culverts on the Illinois Central Railroad. Two miles southeast of Shelbyville gray sandstone was quarried. Some of this sandstone was used as grindstones. On Sand Creek and west of the Kaskaskia River about four or five miles northeast of Shelbyville limestone was quarried for the construction of the Shelbyville railroad bridge. West of Robinson's Creek there was a deep blue argillaceous limestone. The article notes that this limestone was only good for rip-rap or culverts.
The following stone companies and quarries were listed in a table of distances on page 50 of the above-cited book: Davidson’s Quarry, Penitentiary, Western Stone Co. Quarry No. 9, Joliet Lime Stone Co., American Stone Co., Kearns, Prendergast & Bender, Western Stone Co. Quarry No. 7, Erickson’s Quarry, Western Stone Quarry No. 6, Western Stone Co. Quarry No. 5, Western Stone Co. Quarry No. 4, Western Stone Co. Quarry Nos. 2 and 3, Illinois Stone Co., and Western Stone Co. Quarry No. 1.
John Augustine, Marble Worker and Carver, Wilmington, Illinois - Monuments and Tombstones (late 1800s)
John Augustine’s business card reads:
“John Augustine MARBLE WORKER AND CARVER - MONUMENTS AND TOMBSTONES, I respectfully solicit a share of your patronage, WILMINGTON ILLINOIS”
“Henry Miller, a Germany immigrant, made his living carving hearths, fireplace mantels, and gravestones for 19 th-century Naperville residents. Behind Miller’s shop, visitors can view the equipment used by workers who cut and hauled huge blocks out of the limestone quarries that were a major industry in mid 19th-century Naperville.” (Visit the web site above to view photographs of the Stonecarver’s Shop.)
(Biography of Charles A. Pfeiffer, from Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, September 1892, Vol. V, No. IV, pp. 400. A photograph of Charles A. Pfeiffer is presented as the Frontispiece of this magazine issue on pp. 365. This book is available on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
“Chas. A. Pfeiffer, the subject of our frontispiece, was born in Sigmaringen, Hohenzollern, Germany, Dec. 19, 1844, and is therefore at present in his forty-eighth year. Four years after his birth his father emigrated to America, and a year later his mother followed taking her son with her. His father was a practical stone-cutter, at which trade he readily found employment in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, respectively, in which cities the son was given the benefits of a common school education. While yet a mere lad he assisted his father in his labors and the thorough methods acquired by the father in the mother country were gradually instilled into the mind of young Pfeiffer, who was also taught how to sketch and draw, to estimate on cut-stone work and prepare himself generally for the requirements of the trade he had adopted. Having acquired a thorough common school education, he entered a commercial college attending evening sessions. At the age of 24 he became his father’s associate in the business which had been established eight years before, and the firm name was changed to J. Pfeiffer & Son, under which title it was conducted until 1881, when it was incorporated under the laws of Missouri as the Pfeiffer Stone Co., of which Charles A. is president, with headquarters at St. Joseph, Mo. At the annual meeting of the Missouri Valley Cut-Stone Contractors’ and Quarrymen’s Association, held at Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 26, 1892, Mr. Pfeiffer was elected its president and was delegated to attend the convention of the Ohio Valley Association for the purpose of effecting relations insuring a uniformity of action relative to issues affecting cut-stone contractors generally and those of the Ohio and Missouri valleys particularly. This he accomplished to the satisfaction of both organizations.”
Louis Henry Sullivan - “Poems in Stone: Tombs of Louis Henri Sullivan,” by Robert a. Wright, in Markers V, pp. 168-209, Association for Gravestone Studies. (Illinois, Missouri, USA)
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