Geology of Vermont

Slate in Vermont

Text, L. Cadmus

Vermont is host to a great variety of rock types which are valued as dimension stone (stone used in the construction of buildings and structures, as well as for sculptural media). Vermont's State Rocks, granite, marble and slate, are known for quality the world over.

The following is a series of photos which illustrate the process of creating roofing and building material from quarried slate. These pictures were taken in 1977 of a slate mining and processing operation in Vermont (courtesy of Roger Marcell and the U.S. Bureau of Mines). These operations have changed very little since 1977.

Here the slate has been broken loose with black powder and is being loaded by backhoe onto trucks to be refined and processed further.	This is a typical abandoned slate quarry located in the Poultney area of Vermont.
The blasted slabs of slate are trucked from the quarry to a processing plant where they are cut and split into shingles and building stone slabs. Shown here is one of the diamond saws making the initial sizing cuts out of the raw slabs.	The poorer slate that cannot be used for building stone is handsplit with a wedge and maul for flooring.
A stockpiled inventory of roofing slate.	Examples of various slate types and colorings.

Virtual tour of the North Country Black Quarry , The New England Slate Company

Link to Stone Quarries and Beyond web site

For photos and more information about the history of the slate industry, please visit the Slate Valley Museum, 17 Water St., Granville, NY 12832; (518) 642-1417