Stone Harvest at Goshen Stone Company

  • Post published:01/05/2013
  • Post comments:2 Comments
Gary Warner of Goshen Stone Quary

New England is famous for being a stony place. The stone walls that line our roads are a testament to the stones that farmers have been pulling out of their fields for centuries. We gardeners complain about constantly hitting stone as we dig in our gardens.

Stairway at Goshen Stone Quarry

On the other hand, most of us admire the beauty of stone patios and walkways, and dry laid stone walls built by stone masons. Gary Warner, of Goshen Stone Quarry, has been quarrying mica schist for 25 years on land that belonged to his family since the 1770s. Schist is a metamorphic stone that was created by heat and pressure acting on the mud and clay at the bottom of what was ocean over 400 million years ago, It can easily (relatively speaking) be split into leaves or layers.

Warner’s forbears were farmers, but they could pull slabs of stone from the outcroppings without too much trouble when there was a desire or need for stone. The farm closed down in 1962.

Though the stone was always a presence in his life it was not until 1985 when he was in his late 30s and operating the Warner Tree Service that he asked for ten acres of farmland to quarry. This past fall he invited me for a tour of the quarry and explained some of the history. “I didn’t know what I was doing. Gerry Platt of Ashfield Stone and Rick Lafontaine at Sugarledge  also started quarries about the same time. We were all friends and we taught each other as we went along,” he said.

He told me about a photo of himself standing in front of the little house he built at the edge of the quarry when he began. “It was a time when I still had some sass. I look like I’m going someplace – but don’t know where,” he said with a laugh.

Goshen Stone workers

He said that when he began  the quarry a chisel was his important tool, but now there is plenty of heavy machinery to get the stone out of the ground and make it saleable for stone walls or patios. “We try to work efficiently, digging, cutting, splitting, and categorizing. People think we just dig it up but that is not accurate. I’m lucky. I’ve got people who are really on the ball. The work is dangerous and we all get 8 hours of OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) training every year,” he said.

As I toured the quarry I could see workers splitting the stone with power tools. Some would be relatively thin for patios and walkways, while thicker pieces were prepared to be used for dry stone walls. After the stone is cut and split it is organized so that the landscapers who visit the quarry can easily find the particular stone they want and need. The stone comes in shades of silver or blue-gray, but there is also some that is bronze or gold. Sometimes homeowners go to the Goshen Stone quarry to choose stone for a patio they are building themelves. Smaller pieces of patio stone are set aside for homeowners because they usually don’t have the equipment to move large, heavy pieces.

A walk through the Goshen Stone quarry is a walk through a geology lesson, and while the terms and explanations don’t necessarily hold firm in the mind, there is no escaping the sense of time and the power of the earth that created this stone.

In 1999 Warner began quarrying another ten acres of land up beyond his grandmother’s house because he could see that the life of the quarry on the original ten acres would come to an end.

Goshen Stone revealed

He showed me spots where the geology of the stone was fully exposed, but he was quick with a reminder. “The stone is not sitting on the surface. You have to dig down through the soil to get to the stone. When I get into the rock I get really excited,” he said.

In 2000 he finally sold the tree service business he had been operating for 23 years, even during the early years of the quarry.

Gary Warner’s family history goes as deep into this area as the stone goes into the earth. Goshen Stone has joined his family history with local history as it has been used in public spaces like the Three Sisters Sanctuary, which is only a couple of miles from the quarry, and even more locally at the Bridge of Flowers where stonemason Paul Forth carefully chose large slabs that were artfully sculptured to surround what I call the Stone Spring on the Shelburne side of the Bridge.

I was amazed to learn that Goshen Stone is so special that it has been shipped as far as Texas for a project. It has also been shipped to the Hudson River Valley in New York State to be used at Alexander Hamilton’s estate when this historic site was recently renovated.

When we think of a garden we think of plants, but stone can give a garden a defining structure, provide comfortable social space, and even remind us of the ancient history of our planet and the mighty forces still at work beneath our feet.

Between the Rows   December 29, 2012

 

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Jason

    What a great place. We have to travel far to find that kind of source for stone.

  2. Pat

    Jason – Our area is rich in many areas. We are lucky.

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