Mance: Quarry Industry of Southern Indiana 49 



with the necessary dump cars are kept constant^ at the work 

 of stripping new floors. The openings probably cover 50 acres 

 and the large number of switches laid gives the quarry the ap- 

 pearance of a small railroad yard. 



The Hoosier Quarry. About a half-mile west and south of 

 the P. M. and B. quarry and over a low ridge of hills lies the 

 Hoosier quarry, also the property of the Indiana Quarries Com- 

 pany. This quarry is probably the oldest in the district to remain 

 in active operation to the present time. It was opened in 1879 

 and has been the property of several different companies since 

 that time. This quarry also consisted of a number of openings 

 that have since run together. The stripping here is lighter than 

 in the other quarry, but the thickness of the valuable stone is 

 less, the floors at present operated not giving over 35 to 38 feet 

 of good stone. The stripping consists of about 8 feet of earth 

 and a thin edge of the Mitchell limestone. The seams in the 

 quarry are developed in both directions but only the east and 

 west ones are widely opened by weathering. The upper surface 

 of the Oolite in this quarry is very irregular and much of the 

 upper layer is rejected as waste. The stone quarried is a fine- 

 grained buff stone. The blue stone comes in at the bottom of 

 the quarry, but the opening is so far above the valley drainage 

 that the amount of blue stone is very small. 



The company has 2 large mills in connection with this quarry, 

 one located near the center of the working and the other, a new 

 mill, at the southwest end of the workings near the town of 

 Oolitic. The old mill of the company, located near the central 

 part of the present quarry opening, is built of stone. It has not 

 been in operation for the past two years. This mill is one of the 

 few mills where wire saws are still in use in the district. The 

 only other company using them is the McMillan Company in 

 their mill at Peerless. These saws consist of a cord of twisted 

 wire drawn tightly over pulleys. The quarry blocks to be cut 

 are placed in a row in line with the stretched wire and the pulleys 

 force the wire down on the stone while a line shaft drives the 

 pulleys. The cuts made in this way are not as regular as those 

 made by other types of saws because the wire tends to be forced 

 out of a straight line as it encounters rock of varying hardness. 

 The consumption of power by these saws is small, but their rate 

 of cutting is slow. 



The Reed Stone Company has had a mill in operation at 



4 



