146 Frank Carney 



pal quarries now in operation. Formerly there were several other 

 openings, some of which were worked at a very slight profit, 

 and a great deal of needless competition prevailed. The Cleve- 

 land Stone Company is a combination of many owners. With this 

 combination, better quarrying methods have been introduced, and 

 only the openings in good quality of stone were retained. There 

 is no question but that more modern business methods have been 

 used to the advantage of builders, though many quarries have had 

 to go out of business. The stone is put on the market in better 

 shape, and probably of more uniform ciuality. 



The Berea formation affords an exhaustless supply of desirable 

 building stone. The quarries now in operation show a variation 

 in thickness of good quality of stone from 20 to over 100 feet. 

 The deepest quarry is at South Amherst. The oldest are those 

 about Berea. Many of these quarries furnish stone well adapted 

 to abrasive purposes, a use which I described in another section 

 (p. 156). 



Several formations, other than the Berea, also supply good 

 sandstone for structural uses. Only a little younger than the 

 Berea is the Cuyahoga, which in the central part of the state 

 embraces clastic beds of sufficient thickness and uniformity of 

 texture to make a good building stone. In general, however, the 

 Cuyahoga contains such thin and irregular beds that the quarries 

 in it are not numerous. Belonging to the upper part of the Mis- 

 sissippian period, the Black Hand formation locally has many 

 quarries. The Black Hand belt, which contains stones suitable 

 for building purposes, extends north-south through several coun- 

 ties. This formation is much more irregular in texture, hardness, 

 and structure than the Berea. It varies all the way from a coarse 

 conglomerate to an argillaceous sandstone. Usually, too, it carries 

 a higher content of ferruginous cement. In the earlier days some 

 quarries of the Black Hand formation acquired much reputation ; 

 the Lake Erie and Ohio River Canal passes across its outcrop, and 

 quarries were opened in it for making locks. The early railroads 

 through the central part of the state likewise distributed building 

 stone from Black Hand to more distant points. 



In the lower formations of the Pennsylvanian period are some 

 sandy horizons, in which building stone of average quality is found. 

 The best, perhaps, occurs in the Sharon phase of the Pottsville. 

 This outcrops in a band usually parallel to the Black Hand out- 



