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Home > Maine > Research Resources - Maine
Maine Granite Industry Museum, presented by the Maine Granite Historical Society.
Rocky Coast Rock Shop 70 Beech Hill Crossroad, Mount Desert, ME 04660; 800-270-6388, Steven Haynes and Juanita Sprague, Proprietors, & the Maine Granite Industry Museum. Steven Haynes and Juanita Sprage are the local authorities on Maine’s historic granite industry. They have collected specimens from over 350 of the abandoned granite quarries in Maine, and they have helped to create the Maine Granite Industry Museum located at 62 Beech Hill Crossroad Mount Desert, Maine, which is hosted by the Maine Granite Industry Historical Society.
Stone Cutters Online, presented by Dorothea McKenzie. Interesting sections and photographs presented on this web site include: Projects, History, and Photo Galleries.
The following quotation is taken from A Guidebook to Mining In America: Volume 2: East (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and farther East), 2000, by John R. Park, Stonerose Publishing. The quotation is used with the permission of the author.) Mr. Park writes:
"The Museum includes an exhibit of granite quarrying in the Made in Maine section. Gems and minerals found in the State are on display in The Land Called Maine section. Non-mining exhibits include: the natural environment, shipbuilding, ice harvesting, lumbering, social history, manufacturing, and economic activities. The original section of the Statehouse building is built of Hallowell granite."
"The Museum features tools and photographs from the now-abandoned granite quarries, including a restored galamander and models of galamanders. Artifacts on display include quarrymans' tools ad chests, granite cutters' tools, including special tools for cutting paving blocks, sample paving blocks, and sculptures. Non-mining exhibits include fishing and marine items, and farming tools.
"According to the Self-Guided Walking Tour, there is a large restored galamander across from the town library.
"Granite quarrying was the main occupation of Vinalhaven from 1826 to 1940. Thirty quarries remain (all inactive), two of which are owned by the town and are used as swimming holes. It is claimed that galamanders were invented by a local resident named Elder Littlefield.
"A Self-Guided Walking Tour of the Town of Vinalhaven and Its Granite Quarrying History (brochure) is illustrated with historic photographs, albeit, it appears that very little described in the brochure is still in existence."
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