Ochee Spring Quarry

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Ochee Spring Quarry

Soapstone Quarry, Johnston RI.jpg

Site of the quarry, c. 1920
Nearest city Johnston, Rhode Island
NRHP reference # 78000003 [1]
Added to NRHP May 5, 1978

Ochee Spring Quarry is an historic quarry in Johnston, Rhode Island. Located on a privately owned outcrop of land behind 787 Hartford Avenue (United States Route 6), the quarry was a source of steatite (soapstone), a relatively soft stone easily workable into containers. Native Americans are known to have used this quarry. [2] A study of the site conducted in the mid-1980s concluded that the quarry was probably worked in an organized manner, to produce containers in a variety of size. Items made from this quarry have been found across southern New England. [3]

Quarry A place from which a geological material has been excavated from the ground

A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground.

Johnston, Rhode Island Town in Rhode Island, United States

Johnston is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 28,769 at the 2010 census. Johnston is the site of the Clemence Irons House (1691), a stone-ender museum, and the only landfill in Rhode Island. Incorporated on March 6, 1759, Johnston was named for the colonial attorney general, Augustus Johnston.

Soapstone type of metamorphic rock

Soapstone is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is largely composed of the mineral talc, and thus is rich in magnesium. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zones where tectonic plates are subducted, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx of fluids, but without melting. It has been a medium for carving for thousands of years.

The quarry was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. [1]

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence County, Rhode Island Wikimedia list article

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. Capace, Nancy (2001). The Encyclopedia of Rhode Island. North American Book Dist LLC. p. 21. ISBN   9780403096107.
  3. "Conference of New England Archaeology Newsletter, December 1985" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-10-27.