


Excerpts from the chapters on 1) "Structural Materials," and 2) "The Useful Minerals of the United States:
"The division of the Tenth Census charged with the collection of statistics of building stone obtained returns from 1,525 quarries in the United States, having an invested capital of $25,414,497, and producing during the year ending May 31, 1880, 115,380,133 cubic feet of stone, valued at $18,365,055. In value of total product, the leading States rank as follows: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Maine, and Connecticut; each of these States producing upwards of $1,000,000 worth of stone. Vermont, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, New York, and Missouri, in the order named, produce the most marble and limestone; Ohio, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, the greater part of the sandstone; Massachusetts and Maine quarry the most granite and other siliceous crystalline rocks; while Pennsylvania leads in product of slate."
Domestic production.-Lime for mortar and other building purposes is burnt to a greater or less extent in every State in the Union. It is difficult, or almost impossible, to obtain accurate statistics of production, inasmuch as the manufacture is in a great number of small hands, and only a small proportion of the product passes through the main channels of transportation. The production is estimated to be between 30,000,000 and 32,000,000 barrels, of 200 pounds each, worth 65 to 75 cents per barrel, spot value. This gives a total valuation to the production of $21,700,000-assuming the means of the above figures. The lime product presupposes the quarrying of about 6,000,000 tons of limestone. Of this total product of lime it is estimated by several authorities that 1,500,000 barrels come from Rockland, Maine, and from 800,000 to 1,000,000 barrels from New York State.
Marble Dust.
About 25,000 tons of marble, most of which is domestic, are ground annually. The dust is worth $7 per ton, and is used in the generation of carbonic acid gas in soda fountains, etc. This marble is chiefly from Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and New York, a large part being the scrap marble produced in dressing ornamental work.
Reported by John C. Smock.
Ores, minerals, and mineral substances of industrial importance, which are at present mined.
Flagging stone: Phippsburg, Sagadahoc county, mica schist; Acton and Lebanon, York county; Winthrop, Kennebec county; mica schists at these and other localities are available; also sandstones in northern part of state.
Granite, gneiss, syenite: Kennebunk, York county, several quarries, a dark-colored granite; Hallowell, Kennebec county, a gray gneiss quarried on west of Kennebec river, extensively quarried and widely known; Brunswick, Cumberland county; Phippsburg, Sagadahoc county; Wiscasset, Lincoln county; Edgecomb, Lincoln county, a dark-colored granite; Seal Harbor, Lincoln county; several quarries; Mount Waldo, Penobscot bay, porphyritic granite; Mosquito and Trest mountains on Penobscot bay; Blue hill, Hancock county, several companies; Brooksville, Hancock county; Sullivan, Hancock county, immense quarries; islands in Knox and Lincoln counties; immense extent on shore of Hancock and Washington counties; also, in Katahdin range, unworked; hundreds of quarries and localities along coast.
Limestone and marble: Limestones of Rockland, Thomaston, Hope, and Camden may be termed marble, but not used largely as such; on Saint George's river, Warren, and Union, several quarries; Aroostook county, T. 7 R. 6; Helderberg rocks running from Matagamon river northeast in Aroostook county.
Sandstone: Devonian sandstone, in Washington county, especially in Perry and Machiasport, small quarries.
Slate (roofing): For roofing; Brownville, Piscataquia county; Caratunk in Somerset county, thence in a belt to the Penobscot river; Foxcroft, Sebec, Barnard and Williamsburg towns; T. 13 R. 3, Arrostook county, and doubtl (sic) as many other localities in this county; above Bingham and Concord on Kennebec river.
Serpentine: Deer isle, Hancock county, large deposit.
Commercial use of material within this site is strictly prohibited. It is not to be captured, reworked, and placed inside another web site ©. All rights reserved. Peggy B. and George (Pat) Perazzo.