The Granite Quarries of Barton Mountain, Part 3: Our Quarry

A year ago in April, John and I found this small quarry on my land way back in the woods. Amy has since told me that she had found it long ago, but she never told me about it. This quarry is not on the maps. John theorized that it was an exploratory quarry and when the seams of quartz were found, it was abandoned. But we have found (as you will see in Part 4 in the future) that this quarry was used to make our house.

Above: cut granite was never taken down the mountain.

Above: Buddy Cat (who always hikes with us at home) hears a mouse.

Above: a closeup of where Buddy heard the mouse.

If you have never seen an old, abandoned quarry, you could walk into it and not recognize it. Below: you can see the marks the drills made in the granite.

The Granite Quarries of Barton Mountain, Part 1

The Granite Quarries of Barton Mountain, Part 2

The Granite Quarries of Barton Mountain Set

A Walk in My Woods Set

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The Granite Quarries of Barton Mountain, Part 2: The Raymond Paquette Sr. Conversations.

The Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association contains the text of a conversation with Raymond L. Paquette, Sr., a resident of Barton, in which he recalls the history of the granite quarries on Barton Mountain. Below you see the area that is spoken about. Below this image is a tighter image that shows my location on Barton Mountain in reference to these sites.

The altitude is in meters. The conversations below refer to the red push pins on the map. #1 is the bottom red pin, 2 is middle red pin and 3 is the upper red pin.

The text of the conversation with Mr. Paquette about the Barton Mountain Granite Cluster:

#1: John Barnard's Quarry "John Barnard's farm had falls on May Pond Brook, a grist mill for power, and four barns. across Route 16 and up Barton Mountain, John Barnard had a granite quarry. Later, Ryle Miller built a house on the grout pile at the Barnard Quarry."

#2: Pete Damon Quarry (on present-day Labrecque farm) "Pete Damon had a granite quarry. 1915 or later. Knew his granite. He built a lot of granite bridge underpasses for the cows to go under the road. The Labrecque farm had one and the Michael farm has one." "When I owned the present-day Michael farm there was a granite water tub in the old milkroom that was built by Pete Damon. The granite in that tub was four inches thick."

#3a: Harry Fisk Quarry (on present-day Michael farm) "The quarry covered four acres. A granite company had a four-year lease. They worked four years and then, gave up. A man named Ferguson worked this quarry after the company left. He worked alone and did hand-work only. They brought the granite to South Barton."

#3b: Harry Fisk Quarry (on Spiller Road, first mobile home on the left) "Very small quarry. His quarry never got electricity."

"In 1920 (plus or minus), electricity was brought to the first three quarries before anyone in Barton got electricity. Barton got this electricity from Charleston.

In the early times, almost all of the granite was cut by hand. Route 16 was dirt back then. When the granite was brought to South Barton, they used what they called 'shoes' to trig the wheels of the wagons that were loaded with the very heavy granite. These 'shoes' were made of cast iron at the Markland Company which was located on Water Street in Barton."

"In the 1920s, Richard Ryan made the gravestone for my little sister who is buried in St. Paul's Cemetery in Barton.

"In 1946, I bought the Fisk farms which consisted of three hundred and sixty acres of land. I used the electricity from the Fisk Quarry."

The Granite Quarries of Barton Mountain, Part 1

The Granite Quarries of Barton Mountain Set

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The Granite Quarries of Barton Mountain Part 1

http://meeyauw.blogspot.com/2010/05/granite-quarries-of-barton-mountain.html

Wingnut's Barton Tour

July 6: the temperature in the shade was like 121°F (50°C) yet Wingnut took the wagon tour of Barton to see how the village has changed over the last century and a half. I stayed at the Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association Barton Museum of Education and Manufacturing. I chatted with Dottie, had lemonade, and took some photos in the museum (with permission).

Cherry Tree Hill Yarn's horses pulled the wagon. They took about 12 people. You can see Wingnut below in the wagon. See the lady next to him with the Boston Red Sox cap? She is 94 years old and although she was not in charge of the tour, she essentially provided all the narration because of her superb memory.

I will be writing two more posts on the Barton granite quarries on Barton mountain based on information I found at the museum. I do not include the information here because it is a long post.

The museum is in the Pierce House, which I photographed in the winter as part of my historic buildings assigment. The museum is always collecting pieces, so if you know of any Barton artifacts, please consider contributing.

A machine from the 1800s used to make baseball bats.
This business was an important part of Barton manufacturing.

Cash register and fireproof record keeper used in the blacksmith shop of Thomas Redington from 1910 through 1938. From then on it was used in his service station until his retirement in 1964 at the age of 82.

An intact 1915 calendar.

A rocking butter churn.

Wingnut survived the heat! He was not scared of falling out of the wagon (which I tend to fear on sleigh rides), and the heat did not bother him. But he has little memory of the historical narration. What 12 year old boy would?

Technorati Tags: Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association, Barton, Vermont, rocking butter churn, Cherry Tree Hill Yarn
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Short History of Pageant Park, Part 3

1936: A winter carnival was held here. 2,500 people attended this Winter Circus. There were dogsled races, sledding, hockey and basketball. Five airplanes landed on Crystal Lake, which had been plowed to make runways. The ice was also cleared for harness racing.

1937: The air temperature was 40°F (4.4°C) and it rained for the Winter Circus. The sponsors never held the event again.

1942: The Barton chapter of the FFA held a ski meet for six northern Vermont schools. The downhill and slalom races were held at the Pageant Park ski trail. Other events were held in other town locations.

A History of Barton Vermont
© 1998 Darlene Young;
Crystal Lake Falls Historical Association;
Barton, Vermont

Technorati tags: Pageant+Park Crystal+Lake Barton Vermont

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Short History of Pageant Park, Part 2

The Ledges

Cutler's gift mandated that the town maintain a road and provide upkeep for the park. The village trustees accepted the gift and created camp sites, a picnic area with tables and fireplaces, installed electric lights, and cut a trail to the spring.

This may be the original spring.
A trail to the ledges continues past this spring.

The Fourth of July, 1924: Cutler presented the park to F. Cutting, a village trustee, during a community picnic.

Technorati tags: Pageant+Park Crystal+Lake Barton Vermont

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Photo Hunters: Rare

Village Waterfalls

Barton village has its own waterfalls from Crystal Lake. They were used to supply energy to mills and even to a Steinway Piano factory that once built key mechanisms. The ruins of this building and other buildings from the last two centuries are still standing and are visible on the Crystal Lake Historical walk in town.

I chose this theme because I thought that Barton was the only village with its own waterfalls. But today I remembered three other Vermont towns with falls: Quechee, Bradford, and North Troy. There probably are others. So this isn't as rare as I imagined.

However, the ruins, historic trail, and beauty of the area are rare and unique.

The building below is E. M. Brown's, our "hardware store." It carries everything. The falls are behind this building and powered a mill in the lowest section which is visible in the second photograph above.
I have modified this blog somewhat for visitors that use Microsoft Internet Explorer. I hope you can all see three columns now. However, I can't get the banner on the top of the blog to be visible for you yet.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Thank you for dropping by!

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