List of Quarries in Alabama & Quarry
Links, Photographs and Articles
- Oneonta, Alabama – the Alabama Wholesale Stone Company (Sandstone) (present-day company)
- Oneonta, Alabama – Oneonta Stone Quarries Inc., 34850 State Highway 75, Oneonta, AL 35121 (present-day company) (According to the FindThe Data web site, the Oneonta Quarry is abandoned. Accessed 5/2013)
- Opelika, Lee County, Alabama - Dolomite Quarries (excerpts from Preliminary Report on The Crystalline and Other Marbles of Alabama, Bulletin 18,” by William F. Prouty, Geological Survey of Alabama, 1916)
- Peckerwood Creek (near branch of), Alabama - the Eureka Marble Division (from Preliminary Report on The Crystalline and Other Marbles of Alabama, Bulletin 18,” by William F. Prouty, Geological Survey of Alabama, 1916, pp. 81-83)
Eureka Division – Extent.
“Under this division is included all the marble belt southwest of the Watters’ Division. This portion of the marble belt is nearly three miles long and has a maximum width of about one-half mile. The marble valley is terminated at the southwest by converging faults, in the SE. corner of S. 14, T. 24-N., R. 16-E.
Bordering Formations.
“From Peckerwood Creek for about a mile to the southwest, the marble is bordered on the northwest side by deep red lands, probably carrying dolomite in large part. From this point on to the southwest the fault is ordered on the west by phyllite of probable Cambrian age which appears identical with the phyllite on the east side of the marble valley.
Natural Exposures.
“This division contains only one quarry but marble has been pitted or occurs in natural outcrops in a number of places. The most conspicuous natural outcrop of marble in this division is to be seen just to the southwest of the quarry of the Eureka White Marble Co. Here for a distance of 150 feet or more a beautiful white marble can be seen in the bed of the branch and in the E. of the SE. of the SW. of S. 12, T. 24-N., R. 16-E (Plate XIX A). Two other exposures in the SE. corner of the same forty can be seen. These show a lower grade marble and also have a different direction of strike. Near the southwest terminus of this division and not far from the church and the bold lime spring in SE. of NW. of S. 13, 2. 24-N., R. 16-E. on the Darden place are several outcrops of banded, blue and white marble. This marble is usually not more than three or four feet below the surface of the floodplain of the little branch along which it is exposed.
Structure.
“The strike of the rocks on the western border of this division, for the most part, makes a considerable angle with the trend of the marble valley.
“There is strong evidence in this division, as there is also in other divisions, of a fault occurring some distance in from the southeast boundary fault and parallel to it.
(Please note: If you would like to read the section on the Eureka White Marble Company/Bishop Marble Company quarry, see:
Peckerwood Creek (near branch of), Alabama - the Eureka White Marble Company (previously operated by the Bishop Marble Co.) in the Eureka Marble Division below)
“To the southeast of the (Eureka White Marble Company)quarry, flat lands continue for more than a quarter of a mile. A well about three hundred feet to the southeast of the quarry has good marble in it. To the northeast of the quarry for three or four hundred feet prospect pits expose good marble at shallow depth.
“Throughout this division there are a large number of lime sinks.”
- Peckerwood Creek (near branch of), Alabama - the Eureka White Marble Company (previously operated by the Bishop Marble Co.) in the Eureka Marble Division (Marble) (from Preliminary Report on The Crystalline and Other Marbles of Alabama, Bulletin 18,” by William F. Prouty, Geological Survey of Alabama, 1916, pp. 81-83)
The Eureka White Marble Company.
Location of Quarry.
“The quarry of this company is located near a branch of Peckerwood Creek at a point just northeast of the natural exposure of marble in the branch referred to above, in the NW. of the SW. of the SE. of S. 12, T. 24-N., R. 16-E. This quarry was opened during 1911-12 by the Bishop Marble Co., and a few blocks were taken out, but on account of not having a railroad to the quarry operations were halted. Under the present management a spur track has been built from the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and the quarry considerably developed.
Soil Cover.
“In the half acre uncovered for the quarry the marble was found at a depth of from 5 to 6 feet below the surface. The covering material seems to be largely transported, and is a yellowish sandy clay with irregularly shaped, more or less cavernous quartz pebbles one-half to two inches in diameter. These quartz pebbles are much more numerous toward the bottom of the mantle rock and frequently made a solid layer from 6 to 12 inches thick over the marble.
Character and Thickness of the Marble.
“There is approximately 80 feet of marble exposed in the quarry opening. None of the layers in the quarry are deep blue but there is some cream white and a large amount of white with a faint bluish tone. The quantity of ‘schist’ in the marble here is small but there are occasionally small inclusions of dolomite masses or lenses which are darker in color than the marble and also much broken. These do not occur in sufficient quantity to be of any great detriment to the marble but their occurrence is of geological interest. If these lenses were originally deposited as dolomite they were less affected by the agents of metamorphism and were fractured by the movements which took place in the marble. If on the other hand it is assumed that these lenses are due to secondary replacement, then their fractured character points either to some movement since their formation which was more felt by the dolomite than by the calcite, or else we must assume that these cracks in the dolomite are due to shrinkage in the change from calcite to dolomite. From the facts in hand it does not seem possible to determine the origin of these lenses.
“The jointing directions in the marble are chiefly N. 75°-80° W. and N. 45° E. and the dip is about 35° E.
“After a concealed interval of about ninety feet below the marble exposed in the quarry, there is to be found in the small branch to the northwest of the quarry an exposure of light colored dolomitic rock a few feet in thickness. Underlying this as seen down the branch toward the north for a distance of about 200 feet, occurs a dark blue magnesian limestone. This is in contact with a crumpled phyllite having an east and west strike.”
- Pelham, Alabama - Limestone Quarry, Today a Dive Site (The dive site is described as a “26-acre former limestone quarry” and a photograph is presented.)
- Pratt’s Ferry (southeast of), Bibb County, Alabama - Black Marble (excerpts from Preliminary Report on The Crystalline and Other Marbles of Alabama, Bulletin 18,” by William F. Prouty, Geological Survey of Alabama, 1916)
Figure 26. Map of the Pratt’s Ferry marble deposits showing geological setting. See Figure 27 (below) for structure of the measures along the line A-B, pp. 87.
Figure 27. Section across the strike through the Pratt’s Ferry marble deposit, showing the basin-like character of the deposit and explaining the absence of outcrop of the marble on the east side of the basin and the sub-carboniferous isolated area on the highland east of the river. The depression in the marble outcrop represents the location of the Cahaba River. The old marble quarry was located on the west bank of the river at this point in the NW. of S. 32 (See map Figure 26 above), pp. 87. 
“There are several places in the State where black marble is known to occur, although it has never been worked commercially, for the reason that there is very little market for this stone at the present time. Most of the so-called ‘black marble’ is not a marble at all but is a very dark gray limestone which takes a nearly black polish. (For the character of the grain of this marble see Plate V B.)....
“Black marble of Pelham age is reported from just southeast of Pratt’s Ferry,* Bib county, in S. 33, T. 24, R. 10-E.”
(* Footnote, page 94: Henry McCalley, Report on the Valley Regions of Alabama, Pt. II, p. 499.)
- Pride, Alabama - Pride Quarry located on N side of US Hwy 72, Pride, Alabama (present-day company), Vulcan Materials Co., Pride Quarry, P.O. Box 740250, 18055 Hwy 72, Tuscumbia, AL 35674; (256) 381-0012.
On their web site, Alabama Wholesale Stone Inc. states it is one of the largest sandstone quarry operations in the southeast. The company was originated in 1985 by Phillip Brown, the owner.
“About 5 miles southeast from Opelika, Lee county occurs a narrow strip of highly crystalline dolomite (see thin section Plate VI A). This dolomite is for the most part a beautiful pearly white stone. The belt in which the dolomite occurs is about a third of a mile wide and is known to extend for several miles in a northeast and southwest direction (see map of the area, Figure 30). This stone has been quarried extensively in the past for lime. The chief quarry is located near Chewacla in the NE of the SE. of S. 4, T. 18, R. 27-E. Quarries in this dolomite have been opened at several places in the past, including Echols’ Mills and Springvilla.
“Chemical Analysis shows the stone to be nearly pure dolomite.
“A light colored talc occurs in some of the layers in small streaks and spots and where present in considerable amount would interfere with the use of the stone for ornamental purposes. It is probable that there are portions of the deposits free from the talc impurity, and if prospecting proves this to be the case we would have here a first-class building stone.
“The Chewacla dolomitic marble is almost identical in appearance with the Cockeysville dolomitic marble of Maryland, so much used in and about Baltimore.”
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.