Quarry Happenings

  WHISTLE The whistle was in one of the stack pipes on the saw mill.  It blew in the morning to mark the beginning of the work day.  At noon and 1p.m. for the beginning and end of lunch break, and late afternoon to signal the end of day.  When the last whistle blew, the workers dropped their tools and hurried out of the quarry. BLACKSMITH SHOP Usually ten blacksmiths worked in the blacksmith shop.  John Gjertson was the head blacksmith for many years supervising the blacksmiths as they sharpened tools, made picks hammers, chain link and wedges for splitting rocks.  Alfred Orstad was one of many blacksmiths who spent long hours sharpening the six-foot and 20-foot drills that dulled quickly boring through the hard sandstone.  Al VanDerWerf was one of many young men whose first job was to carry the 20-foot drills and other tools from the blacksmith shop to the top of the hill.  He protected his shoulder from the cutting edge of the heavy drills with a gunny sack

SAW MILL Flatbed railroad cars carried large mill blocks of sandstone from all over the quarry to the saw mill where derricks lifted the blocks onto smaller railroad cars that ran right into the mill.  Saws suspnded from the ceiling cut the sandstone right on the flatbed cars.  Stone for sidewalk slabs, paving and other non-building uses were cut by steel saws.  Diamond saws cut the finer stone destined to be used for building blocks and trim.  The saws were not the standard type with jagged edges.  Each saw was a long straight band of steel about 12 feet long, six inches high and three-fourth of an inch wide.  George Brickman worked in the saw mill for many years.  He and the saw mill crew operated the saws, run by air compressors, that cut by wearing the sandstone away as they moved back and forth across the stone.  Water constantly ran on the saw and stone to keep the saws cool and wash away the sand.  Six steel saws, about five feet wide, could each make up ten cuts in a mill block

HOIST HOUSE The first building on the right side of the bridge was one of 25 hoist houses in the quarry housing machinery that provided power to the derricks.  The huge sandstone mill blocks were lifted and moved with cable that ran from the boom on the derrick to the hoist.  The cable wound around a huge drum.  In the late 1890s one horse harnessed to a drum walked round and round providing power to the lift and move the mill blocks.  Hydropower from the dam tat ran an air compressor soon replaced the horse.  Later electric motors and gas powered engines ran the hoist operated by Axel Larson, Axel Anderson, Victor Gjertson, Elmer Nelson and other hoist operators who moved levers to turn the drum that lifted, lowered or guided the boom carrying the sandstone mill blocks.  DAM This dam was called the old dam after the new dam was built down river in 1905.  The dam provided power for the huge saw mills that cut the stone and drills that bored through the sandstone. ENGINE HOUSE The sands