FUN FACT OF THE SANDSTONE QUARRY

 SANDSTONE BLASTED FROM BLUFF

Mammoth blocks of sandstone were blasted from the ledge with black powder.  Toivo Luoma and other drillers cut rows of holes, with twenty- foot drills, run by air compressors, powered in the early years by steam, later by hydropower.  The drill operators were supposed to wear masks, but even their faces covered they could not escape breathing the clouds of stone dust that blew out of the holes as they operated the drills.  Black powder was poured into the bottom of each hole, measuring about two inches in diameter.  Next, a quarry man connected all the holes wither copper wires and filled the holes  with sand.  Someone gave a signal and everyone would take cover behind the rock crusher or a bluff.  A jolt of electricity ignited all the powder at once shaking the whole town with man-made earthquake in the quarry.  In 1898 the Pine County Courier reported that sandstone block was moved more than four feet from its ancient resting place...(with) 6 3/4 kegs of black powder.  The 100x20x17 foot block provided 22,000 cubic feet of sandstone, enough to fill 100 railroad cars.  Quarry men used baby drills up to six feet long to break huge block into approximately 3x3x5 foot mill blocks.  Hoists lifted these blocks onto railroad cars, which hauled the rough blocks to the sawmill.  Each year the blocks blasted away from the ledge got bigger.  By 1900 the quarry men used an average of 13 kegs of powder per blast and moved sections about 175x35x20 feet, weighing up to 13,265,000 ponds.  Several years later a blast using 39 kegs of powder in 99 holes moved 300x44x20 foot wall of sandstone away from the ledge.  Retaining the quality of the stone while blasting required highly skilled specialists who understood how to handle the stone.  A quarry superintendent said the Knox system of blasting cracks blocks as square as though hewn ny a woodman's axe... (The) stone not seamed nor cracked by affects of the blast... solid and unbroken surface on all sides...without a particle of shattering.