Indiana Limestone Quarry Run

On June 15th (my 59th birthday), I had scheduled a trip to the Victor Quarry that is owned by Indiana Limestone Co. / Polycor.  

Meg drove and treated a birthday meal of my choice.  A HUGE shout-out for Smokin' Jim's BBQ in Bedford, IN.  Their beef brisket, mashed potatoes, gravy and buttered  Texas toast is a FEAST!

 After lunch, we met Brent Blackwell who is in charge of block sales at the old Victor Oolitic location.  I had previously ordered 18,000 lbs. of slabs for a commission and wanted to find some carving blocks to make a full semi load.  The first choice was the smaller one with 11.2 circled (that's the weight in thousands of lbs.).

 The next pick was this 10,000 lb piece that is standing on its side.

 Brent Blackwell found this 6,000 lb. piece to fill out the 45,000 lb. load.

 I asked if we could take some pictures, so he offered to show us where they were quarrying.  They are slicing the quarry floor like a loaf of bread.  The slices are 4' apart and 10' deep and about 100' long.  After they take out these slices ( a half million lb. each), they plan to quarry underground back into the hill.

 They left this solid stone dike to hold the water back from where they plan to go underground.

 Brent then took us over to another location where they are taking out big blocks.  It's hard to capture this in a picture because the scale is so massive!  Way over there are huge pieces of equipment taking out a layer of usable stone.  Underneath red clay and a thick layer of St. Louis limestone (which is only good for gravel) they find the 40' to 60' thick layer of good Indiana Limestone that is called the Salem  Shelf.

 Blocks and more blocks!  I'm looking at enough for many lifetimes of full-time sculpting... it's overwhelming.

 Brent showed us where the swimming scenes were filmed for Breaking Away in 1978-79.  Meg and I had just been talking about that movie on the way up the road....

 Check out this huge all-stone corner post at a small cemetery.  Right in front of Brent is a high cliff that overlooks...

... the "Empire Hole" - where the stone for the Empire State Building was extracted.  I always like to have an adventure on my birthday - I LOVE to go exploring and find cool places.  But, it was unexpected that Brent would take the time to show us these awesome sights that are located on Indiana Limestone Co. property.  Thank you Brent for making this a VERY memorable birthday!