| Show Stone quarries fade into history pages By CHARLOTTE ANTREI Oolite was the rock out of which they built a temple and later the stone provided an Important industry for ManU Mantl and Ephraim According to Thomas H H. H Parry Parry Parry Par Par- ry ManU Mantl who once worked In Inthe inthe inthe the quarries the scars still remain in the hills north of ot Ephraim and behind the ManU Mantl Temple the only remains of ot otan an Industry of bygone days Quarrying for the white stone got Its start when master stonemason stonemason stone stonemason mason Edward Lloyd Parry came in 1877 sent by Brigham Young to direct the men who spent eleven years mining cutting cutting cutting cut cut- ting and laying the blocks that form torm the ManU Mantl Temple Many of the temple builders were farmers who tended crops in the summers and cut stone during the winter months Even the masons themselves worked summer and winter shifts shuts cutting cutting cutting cut cut- ting In the winter and laying in inthe inthe inthe the summer when there was no danger of frost Rock from two quarries went into the Manti ManU Temple When the overburden of overlying rock In the Manti ManU quarry was too heavy rock from Ephraim went to finish the edifice Tom Parry says Usually I can tell a stone If lC its it's from the Ephraim Quarry or the Manti ManU Quarry The Ephraim stone which is found mainly up around the top of the temple was just a little more uniform and If U anything a little softer and easier to work This Manti stone that they used here there was some of it H that was quite a bit bH harder and had some flint streaks in inH it H he said Oolite In the days of its local manufacture had a variety of uses It Is the stone that appears in the Provo City ing and was shipped both east and west Contractors in Salt Lake City and California were interested in huge blocks of Oolite weighed by the ton Oolite made local houses and even a water tank for Manti ManU According to Tom Parry whose father and uncle Bernard Parry and Edward Thomas Parry Parry Parry Par Par- ry owned the Parry Brothers Stone Company inherited from E. E L L. L Parry at his death a one one- ton block of oolite would be 12 to 14 cubic feet The largest block ever re removed removed removed re- re moved from the Ephraim Quarry he said weighed 17 tons An advertised advantage of the local stone was its ease in cutting as well as its finished appearance Quarrying oolite although it involved the use of e explosives Plosives was a delicate business just the same It was necessary for ex example example example ex- ex ample to use care in dynamiting ing procedures connected with quarrying in order to preserve good stone beneath the stone that was being mined Several procedures were used to get the rock out of the quarry The overburden of overhanging mountain had to be removed before mining could begin The overburden grew thicker as miners went further into the sloping hillside First of all a hole 20 feet deep and one to two inches In diameter would be drilled It would be sprung with a half halt stick of dynamite Greater charges would be used until black 1 lack powder was used to finish the job For mining holes two feet deep were drilled every six inches three feet above the good rock with dynamite charges set off in sequence The quarrymen using their hammers on wedges in small trenches they dug to break the rock would hit a series of wedges in sequence one lick each After hitting the series twice they would wait three to ten minutes so the cut would be smooth before hitting again Parry said that rock broke of often ten the third time It was hit but sometimes on the tenth Several two-and-a-half two to three-Inch three rollers would be placed under each block as men 10 to a crowbar lifted from underneath the rock that was being removed from the quarry A primitive dirt road did not make transportation of ton ten blocks of stone on wagons an easy matter One slip sUp out of the main rut and the wagon would sink a chore to retrieve wheeled Two-wheeled dump carts were used to handle waste When the white oolite had been quarried care had to be used to preserve what was termed the greenstone with its Hs high percentage of sap or water When the stone was mined the water would evaporate leaving calcium carbonate the main Ingredient Greenstone seemed to be more of a problem at Ephraim as the ManU Mantl stone was apparently unaffected by frost Frost could do considerable damage to the fresh stone so It was covered during the winter months If it it could not be shipped to a warmer cli climate mate before the cold set in Once quarried oolite was of interest to non-Mormon non religious religious religious reli reli- groups as well as the Mormon one According to Parry Parry Par Par- ry the stone has been used for alters and carvings in churches in the eastern United States Oolite Is a marine formation and actually had a texture to It H after it was carved and quarried It wasn't cold and glassy like marble or granite granite gran gran- ite the quarry worker said Because the stone is a marine formation made of the skeletons skeletons skeletons tons of tiny animals geologic remains are found In It Fish scales are common dis discovery discovery discovery dis- dis covery In the stone and occasional occasional occasional occa occa- complete fish have been uncovered by quarry men An Another Another Another An- An other discovery was a turtle its skeleton and shell both visible Although oolite was Important In the EphraIm ManU area it was a competing formation elsewhere that helped close the industry here A formation in Texas Texas said was a layer of good stone thicker than the layers here and could be purchased purchased purchased pur pur- chased sawed Into usable blocks economically at 50 a 3 ton Some thirty years ago it be became became became be- be came unprofitable locally to tomine tomine tomine mine oolite When the last stone was sold wages for workers were 4 a day and the price was 25 a ton here Now according to the quarry worker wages are from 30 to 50 a day so you could say you'd have to get a ton for it Once with a hundred men quarrying quarrying for for 1 a day each local oolite was in continual demand at 5 a ton he said Despite its commercial un- un profitability the white stone from the Ephraim quarry has been used in recent years The owners of the old Parry Brothers Stone Company quarried quarried quarried ried rock for the new Temple Information Bureau for wages and 10 cen cents s a ton royalty Another recent project that required quarrying was the re remodeling remodeling remodeling re- re modeling of the north entrance to the ManU Mantl Temple An electrical electrical electrical elec elec- transformer room underneath underneath underneath under under- neath the temple was dug out by hand with eight and 16 pound sledge hammers and wedges 1 o 1 f f W r t r. r a a r M I TEAMS OF HORSES ON A DIRT ROAD were used to haul a ton 15 block of oolite stone from local quarry property of Tom P Ps Pay |
