Rock of Ages - not a hymn, but a huge granite quarry

Today was going to be a day off from tourist activities. We slept late and I went for a 2 hour walk, the first time in many days that I’ve exercised. But we couldn’t resist the pull of all the things to see in Vermont.

Two years ago I cut a page out of the New York Times travel section called 36 hours in Barre, (pronounced Barry) VT. The first sentence, “What better foundation for a city than granite? “ gave us our destination. We took off after lunch and went to Graniteville, southeast of Barre, about fifteen minutes from our campground to see the Rock of Ages granite quarry. Granite has been quarried in this area since the late 1700s. The first commercial building constructed of Barre granite was the Vermont State Capitol erected in 1837. The Rock of Ages Company was founded in 1885 and over the years has bought up many Vermont quarries. They take visitors on a bus to see the E. L. Smith quarry, currently 600 feet deep, and covering 50 acres. The granite goes 10 miles down and can provide granite for 4,500 years if the technology is developed to enable them to go more than 600 feet deep. The Visitors’ Center has an interesting video about the process of quarrying yesterday and today. We went to the fabricating plant, but everyone had left early (it’s Friday afternoon) so no one was there sculpting monuments.



From there it’s a short drive into Barre to Hope Cemetery. The vast majority of the grave markers are carved from the gray Barre granite, but what makes this cemetery a tourist attraction are the unusual carvings. You'll see such things as an oversize soccer ball; a race driver's favorite car (pictured here), an airplane, and a Venetian gondola. Because of the quality of the Barre granite, all the monuments look new, even those that are over 100 years old. Elia Corti, who was Barre's leading stone carver in 1903, appears posed wearing a three-piece suit and two-toned shoes. A couple we met in the campground grew up here and they have already designed and ordered their grave marker made from Barre granite.
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