BUILDING STONE. 627 
which have been in walls for over fifty years show no signs of decay. 
The quarry is situated in the bed of the Auglaize river, and is not worked 
early in the spring nor late in the fall, when the water is high. A slight 
dam is built about the quarry, which is washed out every winter, and in 
addition heavy rains in the summer frequently destroy the works. No 
more permanent dam is built, since the site of the quarry is often 
changed, and no excavation has been made in the vicinity to exceed 6 feet 
in depth. The material is mostly used in the vicinity for bridge abut- 
ments and at Delphos for foundations for buildings. It has been sent, to 
a limited extent, into Mercer county, over the Toledo, Delphos, and 
Birmingham railroad, to localities where the Piqua stone is not so readily 
sent. Ten inches of coarse sand, gravel, and other river deposits cover 
the stone, and about 18 inches of the cap-rock is used upon the public 
highways. This is one of the best building stones quarried in Allen 
county for the purposes to which it is applied. 
Van Wert county is covered in its northwestern part by the Niagara 
beds. The Helderberg limestone underlies the rest of the county, but 
only few exposures of the rock of either kind are known, as the whole 
region is mostly covered by drift. (a) ‘The county is entirely agricul- 
tural, and the stones where quarried furnish materials that are used 
only for foundations in that neighborhood or burned for lime. The 
lime-kilns at Straughn have caused the most extensive quarrying opera- 
tions, and the Helderberg stones there extracted are said to burn easily 
and cheaply to a beautiful white lime. The Van Wert quarry, which 
is the only one reported as producing any considerable umount of build- 
ing material, also produces quicklime; and during the last census year 
the value of the lime produced was about equal to that of the building 
stone. The Van Wert stone is a light gray dolomite, which is found in 
courses from 3 to 7 inches thick. The material thus far has given 
evidence of being a good building stone. Openings have been made 
in the limestone at several other points in the county ; for example, on 
the Little Auglaize, in the northeastern part of the county, a stone 
very much like the Bluffton limestone has been quarried to a small 
extent forthe Delphos market. In the northwestern part of the county 
some building stone is said to have been obtained in much thicker 
courses than in any other part. 
A very light gray limestone has been quarried at Charloe, on the 
(a) Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio, Vol. I, Part I, p. 314: “ Geology of Van Wert County,’ 
‘by N. H. Winchell. _ 
