Diabase Dikes on the Schoodic Peninsula, Maine
On the Schoodic Peninsula in Maine, diabase dikes intruded an older granite. Diabase is the equivalent of basalt that solidified underground. The diabase intruded upward from the mantle into fractures in the overlying granite. This occurred 195 million years ago and...
Reclaiming An Old Stone Barn
In late 2021, we started reclaiming the stone from this old barn in central Montana. The walls had collapsed in many places. The stonemasons that built this barn in the late 19th century collected the sandstone from the surrounding ranch. This sandstone is from the...
Yellowstone’s Rhyolite Walls
Most of the retaining walls in Yellowstone were built using boulders from the rhyolite flows around the central plateau. Click images to enlarge The rhyolite was used because it was available close by and was relatively workable with hand tools. Most walls have this...
Frontier Sandstone Quarry
Quarrying Frontier Sandstone requires the operator to peel out delicate layers without breaking too...