Description: The Early Devonian, Evandale Granodiorite located 2.2 km south of Hampstead, in southwestern New Brunswick has a development history that spans well over a century beginning in the 1830s. During the last few decades quarry activity in the area has been reduced to only one excavation operating on an intermittent basis at best. The Evandale granitic terrain is circular-shaped, underlying an area of approximately 20 square km. In general, it consists of light grey to pink, medium-grained, equigranular, hornblende-biotite granodiorite varying to monzogranite with minor narrow, north-northwest trending, red to buff aplite dykes. The deposit is intrusion emplaced near the tectonic junction of the Gander and Avalon tectonic zones.
Most of the former quarry activities have taken place near the northeastern margin of the granitic body, close to its contact with Early Silurian tuffs and associated sedimentary rocks of the Long Reach and Grants Brook formations (McLeod et al. 2005). Two types of stone have been excavated from this area; a medium-grained pink and green stone and a dark grey granite blue stone. Both have been widely used for buildings and monuments. Operations were carried out on a fairly regular basis up until 1963 by several companies including D. Mooney and Sons of Saint John, by Nelson Monuments Ltd. of Sussex and Trites Monuments and Quarry Ltd. of Fredericton. Up until recently one remaining quarry was operated occasionally by Nelson Monuments of Sussex as a source of utility granite for monument bases, curbing, and other applications.
Gesner (1839, p. 76) noted good quality granite in this area, that had been used for grinding stone from time to time. In 1871 Bailey and Matthew mentioned the Hampstead areas quarries as follows: "At Hampstead in Queens county, quarries have been opened and considerable quantities removed. The rock at this locality has been exposed to a depth of about fifty feet, and is of a uniform pale grey color, very homogeneous in texture, though occasionally containing darker hornblendic masses, and is easily obtained in blocks of any required magnitude". Parks (1914, p. 122-127) and Carr (1955, p. 58-62) provide excellent textural and structural descriptions of the Hampstead stone. Carr (1955) considered the stone a "typical" granite, reporting it consisted "essentially of feldspar, quartz, biotite and hornblende. Feldspar is predominant, and its colour, which varies from a reddish pink to a bluish white, governs the general tint of the stone. Much of the feldspar and some of the mica show advanced stages of decomposition. The quartz is of the translucent to milky white variety. The black minerals frequently occur in large knots or segregations and in some cases mar the stone for high class monument work, making the blocks suitable only for building. Parts of the quarries are, however, free from these blemishes, and when care is taken to select clear blocks the stone makes an excellent material for monumental dies. The present operating quarry appears to be practically free of such knots, and only one 2-inch dyke was seen cutting the formation".
Carr (1955) indicated "two main varieties of stone" as being quarried. One, "a medium-grained pinkish-tinted grey granite, known formerly as "Gypsum Mountain Stone" and [another] a finer grained bluish-grey variety, known formerly as "Blue Monumental". He further commented that "the stone takes a good polish and there is good contrast between the polished and hammered surfaces. In oblique light few incipient cracks are visible but numerous pit holes occur where the softer minute decayed particles have pulled out in polishing".
Carr (1955) noted seven or eight main excavations in the area, all of the "side-hill" type, with the largest reported at having a having a length of 300 feet, a width of 200 feet, and a 30-foot face. Granite sheets were described as massive, horizontal to subhorizontal ranging between 8 to 10 feet thick with a stone rift, horizontal or nearly so, and generally parallel to the sheeting. The grain is typically vertical, in an east -west direction. Both rift and grain were considered well developed, allowing the stone to split fairly well along the "hardway". One main joint set, spaced 8 to 20 feet apart strikes roughly 348° and two subsidiary joint sets were noted cutting the main set at angles from 60° to 90°. The planes of all joint surfaces are vertical or sub-vertical.
New Brunswick geologist Abraham Gesner initiated granitic quarrying near Hampstead. While conducting a geological survey of the region in 1838 he noticed its granite deposits and praised them to Hampstead residents. Word spread quickly, and before long a Saint John resident named Justus Wetmore decided to enter the granite business. Beginning in November 1838 Wetmore accumulated seven lots of property and opened the first of what later became known collectively as the Spoon Island quarries. By 1840, Gesner was able to report favourably on Wetmore’s progress, [indicating that upwards of six thousand tons had already been removed to Fredericton, Kingston and Saint John].
[The] Spoon Island North quarry properties consisted of two main quarries - one in grey and one in pink granite - and several smaller excavations. [The operation] did a booming business in the early 1900s, situated as it was between Fredericton and Saint John with the Saint John River to convey stone south or north as required. Output went mainly into monuments (many of which were manufactured in the St. George granite sheds), monument bases, foundation stone and paving blocks.
The 1930s brought major changes to the [enterprise]. By then, Patrick’s sons, John and Thomas, [had control of the business], transferring the quarry properties to a newly incorporated company called B. Mooney and Sons Realty Ltd. In 1933. Although the stonework's continued, production gradually declined [due largely to] difficulties common to all stone companies in the 1930s - reduced markets, artificial substitutes for stone, [and] higher transport rates. [In addition to these issues] the Mooneys had to contend with a depleting resource. Workers kept intersecting zones full of pyrite, a mineral that weathers into rust spots and ruins the stone for monumental or ornamental purposes. Near the end, the company was reduced to making navigational buoys, as the readily available stone was good for little else.
When John Mooney died in 1952, the Mooney era [at Hampstead] essentially ended. A few years earlier, sections of the property had been transferred to contractors from Upper Gagetown. Between 1956 and 1965 the remaining lands underwent subdivision and ownership changes, the last of which placed the major quarries in the hands of Imperial Realty Limited. Since 1972 Imperial Realty has leased parts of the old Mooney property to Nelson Monuments Ltd. of Sussex.
The Spoon Island South quarries were located immediately south of the Wetmore-Walton-Mooney operations. Little appears in the literature on the earliest history of these quarries. They seem to have been opened first in the 1880s or 90s, possibly [by] Fred T. Burpee who owned the New Brunswick Red Granite Company Limited in St. George. In 1892, Ben A. Appleby of Saint John purchased property from Burpee and either commenced or took over quarrying activities.
The Granite Street Pavement & Construction Company opened two quarries: one in grey and one in pink granite. Unlike the Mooney operation which shipped rough stone to the St. George mills, the Pavement company established its own dressing shed on site near the main quarry. The entire enterprise employed about thirty people. Inside the shed, an arsenal of electrical and gasoline-powered equipment enabled men to produce completely finished monumental stock and dimension stone as well as paving blocks and curbing material. Yet despite constant stone sales, the Pavement company had to obtain one mortgage after another during the 1920s and 30s. Its financial position became so precarious that when Hanington's quarry engineer, Chester Stults, offered to buy the business around 1935, Hanington capitulated. Over the next few years, he gradually sold both the quarries and finishing plant; by 1938 all Pavement company holdings lay in Stults’ capable hands.
The Stults decision to purchase the quarries fit into an overall scheme that began in 1936 when he established a Saint John outlet for selling finished stone monuments. Chester and [his wife] Minnie managed their monument and quarry business for the next 25 years. Stults obtained most of his monument dies from Sweden and other foreign sources, but used grey Hampstead granite for monument bases.
By the early 1950s Chester was operating the only active granite quarry in Hampstead. Geologist G.F. Carr visited Hampstead in 1954 and praised the "excellent opportunities for opening quarries in this district". Even so, he noted that the quarrying techniques employed on site wasted almost half the stone. Moreover, said Carr, Stults had rejected several major dimension stone contracts for lack of adequate facilities to manufacture large quantities of building stone. [However] Stults knew what Carr ignored, namely that the overall market for dimension stone had become so weak as to preclude making any major capital outlay.
When Stults retired in 1962 he sold the quarries and plant to a Fredericton florist and monument agent, Everett Trites. Trites operated the business under Trites Monuments & Quarries Ltd. Manufacturing] monuments on site from foreign black granite, using Hampstead stone for monument bases [only].
Trites himself retired in the early 1970s and sold the stone property, finishing shed and equipment to Nelson Monuments Ltd. Around the same time, the Nelsons began to lease the adjacent Mooney quarries, occasionally quarrying the stone for monument bases and other utility granite applications. Production from the Hampstead quarries has gradually declined over the last decade. As of 2010 no stone is quarried here. Unconfirmed reports suggest the lease agreement between the existing property owners and Nelson Monuments has been terminated.
Noted former quarry sites and approximate location:
Black Granite quarry Gypsy Mountain quarry, 45°36"14"; -66°04'37" Mill Dam quarry, 45°36"03"; -66°04'34" Hall quarry, 45°36"08"; -66°04'18" Blue quarry, 45°35"45"; -66°03'46" Front quarry, 45°35"45"; -66°03'46" Back quarries, 45°35"41"; -66°04'18"(?) |
BAILEY, L.W. 1865. Observations on the geology of southern New Brunswick. Queens Printer, Fredericton, 158 p.
|
PARKS, W.A. 1914. Report on the building and ornamental stones of Canada. Volume II: Maritimes Provinces. Canada Department of Lands and Mines, Mines Branch, No. 203, 264 p.
|
BENSON, D.G. 1953. Genesis and variation of the Hampstead granitic stock. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, 52 p.
|
CARR, G.F. 1955. The granite industry of Canada. Geological Survey of Canada, Mines Branch, Ottawa, no. 846, p. 48–69.
|
GESNER, A. 1839. First report on the geological survey of the Province of New Brunswick. Henry Chubb, Saint John, New Brunswick, 87 p.
|
|