XXI Y. THE RED PIPESTONE QUARRY 



AFAYORITE material for the manufacture of tobacco pipes 

 and various articles of ornamental, sacred, and ceremonial 

 use was the red claystone called catlinite, obtained from a 

 quarry in southwestern Minnesota, and so named because it was first 



brought to the attention of mineralogists by George 

 Catlinite Catlin, the noted traveler and painter of Indians. 



It is a handsome stone, the color varying from light 

 gray to pale and dark reds, the tints being sometimes so broken and 

 distributed as to give a mottled effect. It is a fine-grained argillaceous 

 sediment, and when freshly quarried is so soft as to be readily carved 

 with stone knives and drilled with primitive hand drills. The analy- 

 sis made by Dr. Charles F. Jackson, of Boston, who gave the mineral 

 its name, is as follows: Silica, 48.20; alumina, 28.20; ferric oxide, 5.00; 

 carbonate of lime, 2. GO; manganous oxide, 0.60; magnesia, 6.00 ; water, 

 8.40; loss, 1.00. Stone of nearly identical characters, except in the 

 matter of color, is found in many localities, and in cases has been used 

 by the Indians for the manufacture of pipes and other articles, but 

 so far as known it has not been quarried to any considerable extent. 

 The outcrop of catlinite is found in a broad, shallow prairie valley, 



on the margin of which is situated the town of Pipe- 

 Location stone, county seat of Pipestone County (map, fig. 123) . 



The outcrop was probably discovered by the aborigi- 

 nes where it had been slightly exposed in the bed of the small stream 

 now called Pipestone Creek, which descends into the valley on the east 

 in a charming fall some 20 feet in height, and traverses the shallow 



basin, passing out to the northwest. Catlin's some- 

 The Pipestone ^^j^.^^ diagrammatic drawing of the quarries is repro- 



duced in figure 124. So far as exposed, the pipestone- 

 bearing stratum varies from 10 to 20 inches in thickness, the band of 

 pure, fine-grained stone available for the manufacture of pipes 

 rarely measuring more than 3 or 4 inches in thickness. ' This stratum 

 is embedded between massive layers of compact quartzite of Huron- 

 ian age, which dip slightly to the east, so that in working it the 



overlying quartzite had to be broken up and removed, 

 Tiie Quarry Work the difficulty of tliis task increasing with every foot 



of advance. With the rude stone implements in use 

 in aboriginal times the process was a very tedious one, and the exca- 



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