Stone Country
Here are several shots I took in a limestone quarry in Bloomington, Indiana. I grew up hearing strange noises emanating from this very area, just northeast of Arlington Grade School. Stone from this area has been used in many, many iconic buildings all around the world—including the Empire State Building, seen in previous posts of mine, to the Pentagon—as well as many lesser-known structures. The quality of this stone is simply some of the best in the world.
These quarries are not massive, like open pit mines—they tend to be small, mom-and-pop operations (relatively speaking). Stone can be removed for about two-thirds of the year, when ground water will not freeze, which could damage the stone after it’s exposed.
In addition to the quarries, there are many small limestone mills in operation all around this area (many more when I was growing up). This is where the stone is cut into blocks, or thin plates, to be shipped off for building construction. There is a smaller amount that is actually carved, by hand, into decorative elements, for buildings such as state capitols (Iowa) and the National Cathedral.
To read more about this, please see a book called Stone Country, with text by Scott Russell Sanders, and photographs by my mentor, Jeffrey Wolin.
Four images by Richard Koenig; taken in 1990.