Stone Journal

Near Zion National Park, Utah

Yellowstone’s Rhyolite Walls

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...

read more
1890’s Montana Stone Mansion

1890’s Montana Stone Mansion

This beautiful sandstone building was built in White Sulfur Springs, MT in 1892 for Byron Rogers Sherman, a successful local rancher and businessman. Click images to enlarge Sherman was described as a man whose "wide-spread involvement in the economic development of...

read more
Saving the Creamery

Saving the Creamery

Homestead-era stone buildingThe "Creamery" was built in the 1880's by European immigrants who settled in Montana during late 19th century. Milk collected from surrounding homesteads was processed and sold to residents of Great Falls, ten miles to the north. A nearby...

read more
Enigmatic Hovenweep

Enigmatic Hovenweep

On a windswept canyon rim in far southeastern Utah stand the remains of some of the most baffling stone structures in North America. Ancestral Puebloans The Anasazi (now more properly called Ancestral Puebloan) populated the Four Corners area of the southwestern US...

read more
The Cotswolds

The Cotswolds

The Cotswolds are a region of beautiful stone villages scattered among undulating limestone hills about 100 kilometers west of London. Appearing much as they did hundreds of years ago, the stone villages of the Cotswolds provide a unique view of 17th- and 18th-century...

read more
Fish Rock Tower

Fish Rock Tower

 An Irish Round Tower in Northern California Rare Opportunity Few stonemasons get the opportunity to build structural stone buildings. Fewer still get to work on a round tower in the medieval Irish tradition. On the coast of northern California, members of the...

read more
Flatwillow Fieldstone

Flatwillow Fieldstone

The high prairie north of the Little Belt Mountains in central Montana seems like an endless stretch of flat-topped benches separated by deep ravines called "coulees." This is where we quarry Flatwillow Fieldstone, a Cretaceous sandstone eroded from the then-rising...

read more
Travels in Tuscany

Travels in Tuscany

Tuscany has some of the most beautiful stone buildings in the world.  The stone buildings in Tuscany were constructed over many centuries with many different kinds of stone, often with stone reclaimed from previous structures. Although there is no single Tuscan style...

read more
Fall Trip to the Frontier Quarry

Fall Trip to the Frontier Quarry

Crazy Mountains This October was perhaps the most beautiful month I have seen in Montana since I moved here in 1977. The Frontier Sandstone quarry is located about a two-hour drive northeast of Bozeman, and fortunately I drive there about once per week. It is one of...

read more
Stone wandering in Ireland

Stone wandering in Ireland

Ireland has fabulous examples of stone masonry spanning many centuries. These few images only scratch the surface of what is there. The famous Rock of Cashel, shown above, is a group of 12th and 13th century structures in County Tipperary.

read more
Mr. Rockefeller’s Bridges

Mr. Rockefeller’s Bridges

Granite Bridges and Carriage Roads, Acadia National Park, Maine, USA John D. Rockefeller Jr. (right), the only son of the famous founder of Standard Oil, was a celebrated American philanthropist in the early 20th century. Between 1913 and 1940, Rockefeller financed...

read more
Cutting Frontier Cap

Cutting Frontier Cap

Frontier Sandstone wall cap is installed with both the top surface and edge(s) exposed. To look attractive, the cap thickness must be consistent through the length of the wall. This is more difficult with natural-cleft stone like Frontier where the slab thickness is...

read more
The Stone Foundation

The Stone Foundation

The Stone Foundation is an eclectic collection of stone masons, stone carvers, architects, archaeologists, and assorted others who share a common passion for stone, stone work, and stone history. In addition to annual symposia and workshops, the Stone Foundation...

read more
Pennsylvania Fieldstone Buildings

Pennsylvania Fieldstone Buildings

The eastern U.S., particularly southeastern Pennsylvania, has a lot of attractive 18th- and 19th-century farm houses and mills built from stone.  Unlike that shown above, most of the stone used in these houses is irregular fieldstone.  Although there may be others, I...

read more
Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) Ruins

Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) Ruins

The Anasazi, now more properly called Ancestral Puebloans, were a mysterious culture of Native Americans that lived in what is now the southwestern U.S. from the 8th to the 13th century. They built extensive stone “villages” at many locations including Mesa Verde in...

read more
Limestones Up Close

Limestones Up Close

A close-up view of some of our favorite limestones Limestones are interesting when viewed through a simple 10-power hand lens because they commonly contain fossil fragments.  The photos shown below were shot with good lighting and a macro camera lens; however, a...

read more
Sandstones Up Close

Sandstones Up Close

You can tell a lot about a masonry stone by looking at it through a magnifying glass. A simple 10- or 15-power hand lens particularly reveals a lot with sandstones. The photos shown below were shot with good lighting and a macro camera lens; however, a similar view,...

read more
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Ceremonial Center of the Anasazi World The Anasazi From the 9th through 12th centuries, the enigmatic Anasazi people of the American southwest built the twelve "Great Houses" of Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico. Sandstone blocks, quarried from the surrounding...

read more
Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família ( Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) is a Catholic Church in Barcelona, Spain designed by Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926).  Construction began in 1882 and continues today with an estimated completion date...

read more
Cortona Limestone

Cortona Limestone

One of our favorite stones, particularly for Mediterranean-style architecture, is  Cortona Limestone.  This buff- and gold-colored limestone re-creates the appearance of limestones quarried for centuries in Italy and France. In addition to having a beautiful color...

read more
The Biltmore Estate

The Biltmore Estate

A Guilded-Age Mansion Built from Indiana Limestone At the height of the Gilded Age in 1889, 26-year-old George Washington Vanderbilt II (shown at right), grandson of the railroad and steamship magnate Cornelius "the Commodore" Vanderbilt, began construction on what...

read more
Quarrying Frontier Flagstone

Quarrying Frontier Flagstone

The Frontier Flagstone is quarried in the rolling plains of central Montana, near the town of Harlowton.  All stone quarries differ depending on the type of stone and the nature of the deposit, and the Frontier has some unique characteristics.  We customers visit the...

read more
Quoins

Quoins

Quoins are large rectangular stones used as cornerstones in traditional stone buildings.  They provide structural support for buildings, particularly where rubble or fieldstone is used for the rest of the stonework. They also became an important aesthetic element in...

read more
The Stone Foundation

Join the Stone Foundation

The Stone Foundation is my favorite “stone group” , really the only stone group to which I belong. Starting with a stonemasonry workshop in Santa Fe in 1986, the Stone Foundation has evolved into an eclectic international collection of stone masons, stone carvers, dry...

read more
Indiana Limestone Close Up

Indiana Limestone Close Up

I could never photograph stone up close and get a good result. Even with a macro lenses and good lighting, I couldn’t get the sharpness and depth of field that I wanted. Fortunately, there are much better photographer than me and I recently gave a set of stone samples...

read more
Montana’s Homestead-Era Stone Buildings

Montana’s Homestead-Era Stone Buildings

Scattered across the plains of central Montana are the remnants of countless homestead-era stone buildings built in the late-19th and early-20th centuries by long-forgotten European immigrants. Some are mostly standing while others are little more than the...

read more
Reclaimed Cobblestones

Reclaimed Cobblestones

From the original Roman roads to the natural cobblestone streets of Charleston, South Carolina, rounded cobblestones have been used to pave streets for millenia. Originally, the term "cobblestone" referred to rounded natural stone used to pave streets in Europe and...

read more

Archives:

Search Image Database

Try our recommended searches.

Quarry Works
(Inside MT)

PHONE: (406) 763-3028
FAX: (406) 763-4111

View Full Contact Info > 

Select Stone
(Outside MT)

PHONE: (406) 763-3027
FAX: (406) 763-3029

View Full Contact Info > 

Follow us on Instagram