I’ve been going through numerous older hard drives and came across some images of the Rifle Ice Caves outside of Rifle, Colorado, USA and thought it might be fun to put some together with and without the ice. Music copyright James Taylor, “The Frozen Man”.
The Carbondale, Colorado newspaper has a front page story on the closing in tomorrow’s paper. Check it out on their website here.
In an unusual move, the quarry ceased operations for the winter last Friday. Citing the bad economy and high expense of operating the quarry in winter ( maintaining the road, heating the quarry, only one work crew, water pipes freezing, and an expensive special ventilation system ) Colorado Stone Quarries shut and locked the gate to the quarry.
It’s hoped that the quarry will open again in April of this year. Winters can be difficult when you are trying to safely and inexpensively transport 40,000 pound blocks of marble down a winding, narrow, snow-packed road, let alone heat an entire quarry that is open to the elements all winter long.
While this is not the first time in the history of the quarry that winter weather has slowed or stopped production, it is the first time in it’s modern history that the decision was made to close for the entire winter. In the early days of the quarry storms and snow slides closed the quarry for days on end and sometimes for weeks/months.
During the quarrying for the Lincoln Memorial the quarry fought like heck to keep the road open and blocks flowing down the hill.
Marble will still be shipped from the load out area where a couple of hundred blocks are stored.
I’ll keep you posted on any new developments.
The historical image isn’t dated but I’m guessing it’s from 1910-1916 and odds are that it’s either 1912 or 1916. How’s that for pinning it down?:) ”The Black Bull’ (rotary snow plow) is on the tracks and had a huge fan in the front that would act like a giant snow blower. The tracks still needed to be cleared down to the point that the bull could handle the snow and not derail. Bob Raymond relays a story told to him by Elmer Bair (Elmer worked in the quarry and on the trolley before WWII) about the runaway Black Bull in the DVD ‘The Colorado Yule Marble Quarry: Our National Treasure”.
The color images were made by mechanic/quarryman and hill truck driver Bob Collier in 2005. This avalanche (or just plain old snow slide) takes place just about every year and is sometimes a little heavier than ‘normal’, whatever that might be. The 2005 slide left 25-35 feet of compacted snow on the road and took a week to dig out. Can you imagine clearing the stretch with just shovels 100 years ago?
The Black Bull parked at the old mill site. The Bull was usually parked up at the quarry so it could use gravity in helping clear the tracks down the steep grades.
It sure beat the heck out of clearing the entire way by hand which was done countless times. Sometimes there would be 150 men working their way uphill from the mill site and 150 men working their way down from the quarry and quarry town.
1916 was an especially rough winter and I’ll be adding the story written in The Marble Booster newspaper from then that details the ordeal of keeping the trolley line open in order to keep the Lincoln blocks coming down the hill for the Lincoln Memorial.
Written by Julie Bourne & Richard Huvard
Inspired by the events of 1914 in Marble, Colorado, a one-time Rough Rider turned mining magnate falls in love with an ambitious newspaperwoman as he strives to deliver the worlds purest marble for the newly commissioned Lincoln Memorial. When labor agitators target the symbolic white stone, his obsession to save his town threatens a tragic end to their love.
The above description is from here. I’ll keep you posted when I know more.
Several years ago I came across Jeremy Russel, a sculptor carving a 50 foot eagle inside an alabaster quarry (a mine really). Believe it or not that’s not the most interesting part of this story.
Jeremy was in a tragic car accident years before he began carving the eagle and actually died a few times while the medical team was attempting to save his life. Jeremy ended up losing a leg and almost all of his memory due to the accident. Constant pain settled in as well.
Sculpting had not been anything Jeremy had ever done before the accident but felt called to create the eagle inside the alabaster mine and began to do just that. After meeting Jeremy and the owner of the mine, Robert Congdon, I became the photographer for the project and eventually the VP of the nonprofit Cost of Freedom Eagle Organization.
The project has since been halted and the White Banks Marble and Alabaster quarry sold and given a new name; Mystic Eagle Quarry. I rather doubt that the Eagle will be finished, but you never know.
Read an article from The Aspen Times on the project here.
Aspen Philanthropist here.
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to picture a 50 foot eagle carved out of the insides of an alabaster mine. I hope the following images help and all of them were made several years ago when the project was in full swing.
The entrance to the quarry which is really a mine.
About a 100 feet into the mine you see the eagle on your right, coming out of the heart of the mine.
All of the work on the eagle has been done by Jeremy using simple hand tools.
That’s quite an accomplishment in and of itself but really is something when you consider that Jeremy was not a sculptor before his near-death accident, was in constant pain (except when working on the Freedom Eagle) and has an artificial right leg.
With 9/11 still very fresh on the USA mind the eagle took on even more meaning, focusing the determined look of our national symbol.
The model of the eagle was almost complete when I visited Jeremy in his make-shift studio several years ago.
Simple tools are all that an artist really needs.
Just 30 feet or so beyond the eagle the corridor veers to the left and runs for about another 100 feet or so before it dead ends. An old coal mine milling machine stood like an Alabaster Dragon at the end of the mine tunnel.
Robert Congdon stands next to the dragon.
The view from the end of the line looking back, complete with my own shadow in the right of the frame. The walls are solid alabaster.
It was, and continues to be, my pleasure and honor to be a part of this project. Where it goes from here I don’t know. The cost of freedom is not free and the eagle reminds us of the ultimate sacrifice so many have made to keep so many free around the world.
The Colorado Yule Marble Quarry: Birthplace of The Lincoln Memorial
A pdf copy of President Harding’s program for the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial has been added at the end of the above page.
Oscar McCollum, Jr. First-Hand Experience In Quarry 1941
The above pages have been updated with new images, etc.
In 2003 the quarry still squared blocks with the mono lama saw inside the quarry. This single blade, diamond tipped saw was used to cut smaller pieces for sculptors as well.
Under the blade in this image is a block for one of the altar pieces at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church.
The mono lama saw was removed from the quarry in 2004.
Blocks were loaded onto a rail bed that was then electronically moved under the mono lama blade for cutting. Water was pumped to the cut and the blade was moved back and forth until the cut was finished.
