Many years ago, when Quarry Lake was a dry rock quarry, the above call alerted the workmen that explosives were about to be detonated. The Lake Shore Stone Company used explosives to break up the rock which they mined from 1900 to 1920. The limestone was quarried, crushed into three different sizes, then shipped to one of their three distribution yards in Milwaukee, Muskegon, or South Haven. The pictures and narratives on these panels sketch the history of this industry.
Before the stone was quarried, the topsoil had to be removed, and a donkey engine and cars were used to haul the soil or overburden. This overburden was transported to a point about 500' southeast of the quarry. To mine this rock, holes 6" wide and around 30' deep were drilled into the stone, filled with gun-powder, and detonated. This initial blast cracked the limestone. Dynamite was then put into the cracks and exploded, blasting tons of stone down into the quarry. Not all of the stone, however, landed in the quarry as planned; some dropped on nearby houses!!
As many as 150 people, mostly Luxembourgers and Italians worked in and at the quarry. Many families lived on the property in houses built by the company. When quarrying operations came to an end, the houses were moved to the village of Belgium, about 3 miles west of here.
Comments 0 comments