Marbles. 41 



The white limestone in the Dover Plains-Patterson Valley, has 

 been worked at several points near Dover Plains, South Dover and 

 Patterson for marble. The first quarry was opened on the Ketcham 

 farm on Dover Plains, and near the foot of the East Mountain. It 

 has been idle many years. Another quarry is on lands of Horace D. 

 Hufcutt, and on the eastern side of the valley. The stone is white 

 to bluish-white and rather fine-crystalline, and dresses easily. A 

 plainly marked set of joints traverses the rock, dipping 75° north. 

 The quarry is small, and but little stone has been taken out of it of 

 late years. 



The quarry of Geo. W. Ketcham is on the east side of the road, 

 two and a quarter miles from Dover Plains. The strata here have been 

 opened for a length of 300 yards on a line with the strike, S. 5° to 8° W., 

 and for an average breadth of 70 feet and a depth of 25 to 50 feet. 

 The strata dip 85° to 90° S. 82° to 85° E. One vertical joint system 

 runs east and west, dipping steeply south. A second system is nearly 

 horizontal, dipping a few degrees westward. There are two varieties 

 of stone in this quarry, white and blue ; but these varieties are ap- 

 parently intermixed without order, sometimes in the same bed. 

 About thirty feet of the stone is above the natural drainage. This 

 quarry was opened by Mr. Ketcham in 1840 and was in operation up 

 to 1883, since which time it has been idle. It was worked extensively, 

 and for a time the annual output amounted to 40,000 square feet of 

 stone. The whole went into monumental work. 



Near South Dover marble was formerly quarried on a large scale 

 at the Preston and McMichael quarries. The Preston quarries are 

 two miles north-east of South Dover railroad station. The western 

 opening is about half way up on the western slope of a long, low 

 ledge of white limestone. The strata dip 60° westward. The beds 

 are thick. The stone is white, containing more or less scales of white 

 mica, scattered through it and is rather coarse-crystalline. The 

 weathered or exposed ledges of this ridge appear quite solid and not 

 much disintegrated. In the quarry the top stone is soft and crumbly. 

 The eastern opening is on the east side of the ridge ; it is about 375 

 feet long and 100 feet wide. The quarry face is 30 feet high. The 

 dip is westward. A very marked set of joints dips 30° eastward. 

 The quarry has not been worked in years, and the marble mill has 

 been used for a tobacco drying-house. 



There is a marble quarry, one mile south-east of Pawling, on the 

 Patterson road, which has been idle for many years. 



