The Republican journal., 1910-12-01
Names Granite Industry.
New Map of State by Water Storage Com.
mission.

mission.
"By far, the most extensive mineral
industry in Maine is the production of
granite" says an article on granite in
the Directory of the Manufacturing In
dustries of Maine, recently issued by the
Bureau of Industrial and Labor Stats
tics. Granite is we'll distributed over
the State but in some sections the dis
tributlon is far more liberal than in
others. Sometimes the underlying rock
OF whole town or even a much larger
extent of territory is granite, while in
other cases only here and there the out
groupings of this rock are seen, or it may
only appear in large boulders scattered
over the surface of the ground.
''The prevailing rock in York county is
granite. In Biddeford numerous quar-
ries have been opened and worked quite
extensively, also in Kennebunk and Ken
nebunkport. Excellent granite is also
found in Alfred, Lebanon, Newfield, Par
sonsfeld and other towns in the county,
, upon which quarries have been worked
to some extent.
''In Oxford county. the beautiful
mountains in Hebron and Peru are COM
posed of granite, Woodstock is mostly
underlaid with the same kind of stone,
and the ledge over which the Androscog-
gin river falls in Rumford is also of gran
lite. In general, the high peaks in Ok
ford county are composed largely of the
same material, and it is claimed that
every town in the county contains more
or less of this valuable building stone.
'Granite is abundant in Franklin coun-
ty. Immense deposits are found at North
Jay where the quarrying and dressing of
tho cfnna haS hponrnn pytanSiUo and
permanent business. Saddleback Noun
tain, in the Rangeley region, is compos
ed mostly of granite, also Mount Bigelow
in the northeastern section of the coun-
ty. 1t is also found in Pennington. Ches-
terville and other towns.
lin Cumberland county, granite is
quarried in Freeport, Pownal and Var
mouth, and is found in many other locali-
ties.
"Kennebec county is noted for its fine
light granite. Several important quar-
ries are worked in Hallowell, and Angus
ia contains many good lodges which have
been wrought to considerable extent.
1t is found in Gardiner, Belgrade, Wayne
and other sections of the county.
Gin Sagadahoc county, granite is found
in Bowdoinham, Topsham, and other
towns but is not worked to any great
extent.
'In Knox county granite is wrought
extensively in Hurricane Isle, Saint
George, South Thomaston and Vinal-
haven
"In Lincoln county, extensive deposits
of granite are found in Bristol, Monte
gan island, Waldoboro and other towns,
but the most important quarries are in
Waldoboro.
o1I ,,,o l
of granite. Mount Waldo and Mosquito
mountain in Prospect, literally mountains
of granite, and bordering on the navig-
able waters of Penobscot river, can hard
ly be surpassed as to the favorable situa-
ton of the stone for quarrying and ia
cilities for water transportation Exten-
sive deposits are also found in Lincoln
vile, Northport, Searsport and Swan
vile.
Hancock county is noted for its large
number of granite quarries, Bluehill,
Franklin, Mount Desert, Stonington and
Sullivan, all being extensively engaged
in the business, while Brooksville, Ded-
ham, Deer Isle, Eden, Penobscot, Sedg-
wick and Swans Island do more or less
producing in some form.
SIN Washington county, there are
extensive deposits of granite in Cooper,
Meddybemps, Charlotte, Robbinston,
Calais, Barring, Addison, Jonesboro,
Jonesport and other towns, though not
worked so extensively as in some other
section. Red granite is quarried in Jones'
boro and at Red Beach in Calais, black
granite in Addison, and the gray variety
in Jonesport.
I'm the northern counties of the State,
granite is but little worked, except for
local use, on account of the expense of
transportation, Norridgewock, in Somer-
set county, being about the only town in
which any considerable amount is pro-
duced for shipment. But there are
scores of towns and townships in this
section which, no doubt, equal any we
have mentioned in their granite deposits.
Rough split granite has long been
and underpinning for buildings, in bridge
and other outside work, and in the form
of paving blocks for city streets, but the
abundance and cheapness of lumber for
long time prevented the use of the much
more expensive granite as building ma
terial. A large amount of rough granite
was also shipped out of the State. Fort
Monroe was built of stone quarried at
Seal Harbor in the town of Saint George,
and part of the stone used in the con-
struction of the Delaware breakwater
came from the Chaise quarry in the
same town. In 1886 rough split granite
sold in New York at 40 cents per cubic
foot, and large quantities were shipped
there from Saint George.
''To be sure, here and there a public
building was constructed of granite a
century ago, but it was not until about
the time Of the Civil war that there was
sufficient call for dressed granite to
make it really an industry in our State.
Since that time the granite business has
had a gradual growth, in which the
State of Maine has largely shared, fluc-
tuating more or less from year to year
according to the volume of contracts the
operators were able to secure. The to-
tai value of all granite produced in the
State in 1897 was 81, lis, 1927; in 1898, ST.
O32, 621; in 1899, 81, 321, 082; in 1900, ST.
568, 573; in 1901, So, 689, 300; and in 1905,
So, 713, 795.
1.-The great bulk of the granite pro-
duced in Maine is shipped out of the
State. Much Of it is dressed stone,
which goes into the construction of build
ings, some of the most important Ma.
tional and State structures being built OF
Maine granite; also bank and insurance
buildings, business blocks, private resi-