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Industrial Minerals and Uranium Section For information: contact Robert W. Gregory Email: bgregory@uwyo.edu Phone: (307) 766-2286 Ext. 237

Decorative and Dimensional Stone

Revised 02-06-2004

Wyoming contains extensive outcrop areas of rocks of many different colors and lithologies, suitable for quarrying for decorative and dimensional stone. Recently, a new dimensional sandstone quarry has opened, and several landscape and fieldstone quarries are being operated.

Outcrop of beige granite of Precambrian age in the Granite Mountains of central Wyoming. This kind of joint-free massive outcrop is suitable for quarrying dimensional stone blocks. Photo by Ray E. Harris, 1998	University of Wyoming stone quarry in 1982. Located six miles north of Laramie, Wyoming, this sandy limestone was used on many of the buildings on the campus of the University of Wyoming. The source unit is the Pennsylvanian-Permian Casper Formation. Photo by Ray E. Harris, 1982.
S. H. Knight geology building on the campus of the University of Wyoming. The orange-buff sandstone in the wing beneath the red roof and the identification sign came from the university quarry pictured above. The sandstone in the rest of the building came from the Weber quarry in Utah. The grey trim is Indiana limestone. The steps are Lyons sandstone, Lyons Colorado. The trim capping the low wall at the base of the west wing (red roof) is granite from the Ames Monument quarry, 15 miles southeast of Laramie in Wyoming. Other types of stone are found on interior walls and floors. Photo by Ray E. Harris, 1999.	Raven Quarries dimensional stone quarry in the Laramie Mountains west of Wheatland, Wyoming, Wyoming's first dimensional stone quarry since 1966. Photo By Ray E. Harris, 1999.
Slab of Mirage or Fantastico granite (10' x 5' x 3/4") quarried by Raven Quarries LLC., in Albany County, Wyoming and cut and polished by Strid Marble and Granite, Cheyenne Wyoming. Photo courtesy Strid Marble and Granite.	Wyoming Gray Sandstone Quarry site. Photo By Ray E. Harris, 1988.
Outcrop of pink granite in the Haystack Hills, Goshen County, Wyoming. This area is suitable for some types of block quarrying. Photo by Ray E. Harris, 1988.	Polished sample of red granite from Battle Pass, Carbon County, Wyoming. Photo by University of Wyoming Photo Service 1990.
Black marble from the Rawhide Ranch, Goshen County, Wyoming. Photo by University of Wyoming Photo Service, 1990	Granite outcrop in east-central Wyoming. This stone is identical to a stone from Brazil called ubatuba. Photo by Ray E. Harris, 1999.
Green quartzite, Albany County, Wyoming. This stone is suitable for specialty aggregate or small polished pieces. Photo by Ray E. Harris 1997.	Polished green quartzite, from the site shown above. Picture by University of Wyoming Photo Service, 1990. Note: This sample was stolen from the State of Wyoming display at the 1998 Coverings Exposition, Orlando Florida. If anyone recognizes this sample and/or knows of its current location, email me.
Cold Spring Granite fabricating plant, Cold Spring Minnesota. Photo by Ray E. Harris, 1991.
Outcrop of Pennsylvanian-Permian limestone, northeast of Laramie, Wyoming. A dimensional limestone quarry has been proposed at a site immediately to the left of this outcrop. Photo by Ray E. Harris, 1999.	Sixteen colors of decorative aggregate from Wyoming. Photo by University of Wyoming Photo Service, 1990.

In the past, stone was quarried in Wyoming mostly for local consumption. Quarries near developing towns provided stone blocks for public and private buildings, curbs, walkways, and other purposes. During the late 1800s, three quarries in Wyoming shipped stone to out of state markets. The Waterfall quarry near Kemmerer in western Wyoming was the source of the stone used to construct and face the city hall in Portland, Oregon.

In addition to providing the stone used in the Wyoming State Capitol, a sandstone quarry near Rawlins supplied dimensional blocks for the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad depot in Ogden, Utah, and several buildings in northern Colorado. This quarry was recently reopened by Strid Marble and Granite of Cheyenne. The stone is being marketed as Wyoming Gray Sandstone. The University Quarry near Laramie was used to provide stone for about half of the buildings on the University of Wyoming Campus, and some of this stone was used on buildings in Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Fort Collins, Colorado.

In the early 1900s, through the 1950s, the Jay Em Stone Company, in Jay Em, Wyoming, quarried stone from numerous granite, marble, onyx, quartzite, and other rock types in eastern Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota and manufactured monuments from these stones.

In the 1950s and 1960s Basins, Inc., of Wheatland, Wyoming, quarried and sold several types of decorative aggregate including green serpentine, various colors of marble, and other rock types. In the late 1970s, Basins was acquired by Georgia Marble, which continued quarrying white marble west of Wheatland and processing it into decorative aggregate. Georgia Marble was purchased by Imerys Marble in March, 2000, and the pit operation closed in March 2004.

In recent years, the state has been the focus for exploration and development of these resources. In 1990, the only stone production from Wyoming was Georgia Marble's white marble aggregate. At the present time, there is one operating dimensional stone quarries, the Wyoming Gray Sandstone Quarry southeast of Rawlins, three custom stone fabricators, at least four decorative aggregate producers, and at least six landscape, fieldstone, and moss rock producers in Wyoming. There are also approximately 6 dimensional stone quarry sites under lease or contract, some of which are in the permitting process.

Raven Quarries operated a site in northern Albany county from which two types of granite were produced, until 2003. A black granitic rock, Wyoming Raven, was quarried in past years. Some of this material was contracted for the construction of Bill Gates' house in Seattle, Washington. Other contracts included decorative accents in federal buildings, church cornerstones, and monuments. The variegated pink granite, called Fantastico at first, then Mirage, pictured on this page, was also quarried until January 2003. This quarry is now for sale.

Because of the varieties of color and rock types in Wyoming, several companies have been exploring for and acquiring property with the development of quarries as the goal. Several examples of rock types and quarry sites in Wyoming are shown below.

Decorative aggregate and fieldstone are other products that continue to be produced in Wyoming in increasing amounts. Most of this material is sold to the Colorado Front Range and Utah Wasatch Front markets. However, distributors in California, Illinois, and elsewhere have expressed an interest in some of these products and have purchased small amounts of material for market testing. Wyoming contains as many different colors and varieties of stone as much of the rest of the world together. We encourage sellers and purchasers of decorative stone product to contact the Wyoming State Geological Survey Industrial Minerals section for information on sources and suppliers, and to contact the Wyoming Business Council for information on business development in Wyoming.

The Industrial Minerals and Uranium Section received a grant from Anadarko Petroleum to study and report on decorative stone sites in southern Wyoming. The complete report was published in December of 2003.