Redstone, New Hampshire | |
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Coordinates: 44°0′53″N71°06′04″W / 44.01472°N 71.10111°W | |
Country | United States |
State | New Hampshire |
County | Carroll |
Town | Conway |
Elevation | 486 ft (148 m) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
ZIP Code | 03813 (Center Conway) |
Area code | 603 |
GNIS feature ID | 872558 [1] |
Redstone is an unincorporated community within the town of Conway in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. It is located on the road from Center Conway to North Conway at the base of Rattlesnake Mountain. From the late 19th century until circa 1950, Redstone was known for its quarry of "red" granite which was mined extensively.
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The first road through Redstone was made in 1765 and 1766. One of the first products to be taken from the hills nearby were rattlesnakes, whose venom was valued for medicinal properties (thus the name Rattlesnake Mountain). This practice stopped after a fire raged over the hills in the 1870s, killing the rattlesnake population, and exposing the rocky slopes to erosion. This led to exploiting the mountain for one of the most important mineral products of New Hampshire, which has long been known as the "Granite State". The Conway quarries, four in number in 1908, were on either side of the Saco River, south-east and south-west of North Conway; their output is coarse constructional stones, all biotite or biotite-hornblende, but varying in colour, pinkish ("red") and dark-yellow greenish-grey ("green") varieties being found remarkably near each other at Redstone, on the east side of the Saco valley. The finer varieties take a high polish and are used for monuments, and the coarser grades are used for construction, especially of railway bridges, and for paving and curbing. [2]
The Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad built the rail from Center Conway through Redstone to North Conway in 1865, but the Redstone stop along the line was formed after the Maine Central took over. The quarry received orders for stone abutments for three bridges between 1876 and 1880; the North Conway bridge, the Center Conway bridge, and the Mill Brook bridge south of Center Conway. It was during this time that the granite's splitting qualities drew the attention of the Maine Central roadmaster George W. Wagg, and Redstone was adopted by the Maine and New Hampshire Granite Company. A railroad station was erected in 1888, and the village got its own post office the following year. There was also a small nondenominational church built on the Quarry Road. The quarry workers were housed in tenements and a large boarding house called "the Schooner", which itself could house 80 men whose pay was reduced by fixed costs for their room and board. By 1889, 300 men were employed at Redstone, shipping six to nine railroad cars of rough granite daily.
Redstone granite can be found in many old station buildings of the Boston & Maine Railroad. In its heyday, the quarry at Redstone had more than twenty derricks in operation. Huge slabs of red, pink, or green granite were shipped near and far with the Boston & Maine railroad, whose cars went directly into the quarry for loading. You could say the growth of the quarry matched the growth of the railroad line, as each new train station was built with Redstone granite.
New Hampshire granites were used for building as early as 1623. The value of granite quarried in the state increased from a few hundred thousand dollars' worth in 1887 to upwards of a million dollars' worth in 1902, when building stone was valued at $619,916, monumental stone at $346,735 and paving stone at $101,548. In that year New Hampshire ranked fourth among the states in output of granite, with 6.3% of the total value of granite quarried in the entire country; in 1908 the value of granite ($867,028) was exceeded by that of each of seven other states but was more than one half of the total value of all mineral products of the state. [2]
The quarry closed in 1942. Today, the granite is protected through The Nature Conservancy, thanks to a 1990 bequest by Anna B. Stearns for the Green Hills Preserve. A hiking trail leads along a ridge with views of the White Mountains and ends at the old quarry site.[ citation needed ]
Granite is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground. It is common in the continental crust of Earth, where it is found in igneous intrusions. These range in size from dikes only a few centimeters across to batholiths exposed over hundreds of square kilometers.
Brownfield is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,631 at the 2020 census. Brownfield is home to the Stone Mountain Arts Center.
Bartlett is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,200 at the 2020 census, up from 2,788 at the 2010 census. Bartlett includes the unincorporated community of Glen as well as portions of the communities of Kearsarge and Intervale, which the town shares with the neighboring town of Conway. It is set in the White Mountains and is surrounded by the White Mountain National Forest. It is home to the Attitash Mountain Resort and the Story Land theme park.
North Conway is a census-designated place (CDP) and village in eastern Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,116 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, North Conway is the second-largest village within the town of Conway, after the village of Conway proper. North Conway maintains its own fire station, post office and public library, sharing its other services with Conway. The White Mountain National Forest is to the west and north. The area is home to Cathedral Ledge, Echo Lake State Park, and Cranmore Mountain Resort. North Conway is known for its large number of outlet shops.
Conway is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous community in the county, with a population of 9,822 at the 2020 census, down from 10,115 at the 2010 census. The town is on the southeastern edge of the White Mountain National Forest. There are five villages in the town: Conway, North Conway, Center Conway, Redstone and Kearsarge. Additionally, it shares a portion of the village of Intervale with the neighboring town of Bartlett.
U.S. Route 302 is an east–west spur of U.S. Route 2 in northern New England in the United States. It currently runs 171 miles (275 km) from Montpelier, Vermont, beginning at US 2, to Portland, Maine, at U.S. Route 1. It passes through the states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
Quartz monzonite is an intrusive, felsic, igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. It is typically a light colored phaneritic (coarse-grained) to porphyritic granitic rock. The plagioclase is typically intermediate to sodic in composition, andesine to oligoclase. Quartz is present in significant amounts. Biotite and/or hornblende constitute the dark minerals. Because of its coloring, it is often confused with granite, but whereas granite contains more than 20% quartz, quartz monzonite is only 5–20% quartz. Rock with less than five percent quartz is classified as monzonite. A rock with more alkali feldspar is a syenite whereas one with more plagioclase is a quartz diorite. The fine grained volcanic rock equivalent of quartz monzonite is quartz latite.
Crawford Notch is a major pass through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, located in Hart's Location. Roughly half of that town is contained in Crawford Notch State Park. The high point of the notch, at approximately 1,900 feet (580 m) above sea level, is at the southern end of the town of Carroll, near the Crawford Depot train station and Saco Lake, the source of the Saco River, which flows southward through the steep-sided notch. North of the high point of the notch, Crawford Brook flows more gently northwest to the Ammonoosuc River, a tributary of the Connecticut River.
Granodiorite is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar.
Elephant Rocks State Park is a geologic reserve and public recreation area encompassing an outcropping of Precambrian granite in the Saint Francois Mountains in the U.S. state of Missouri. The state park is named for a string of large granite boulders which resemble a train of pink circus elephants. The park was created following the donation of the land to the state in 1967 by geologist Dr. John Stafford Brown. The park is used for picnicking, rock climbing, and trail exploration. It is managed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
Dimension stone is natural stone or rock that has been selected and finished to specific sizes or shapes. Color, texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are also normal requirements. Another important selection criterion is durability: the time measure of the ability of dimension stone to endure and to maintain its essential and distinctive characteristics of strength, resistance to decay, and appearance.
Conway Lake is a 1,316-acre (5 km2) water body with a maximum depth of 45 feet (14 m), located in Carroll County in eastern New Hampshire, in the United States. The lake is located in the towns of Conway and Eaton, just to the east of the White Mountains, and is part of the Saco River watershed.
Black Cap is a mountain located in the town of Conway, New Hampshire, United States. It is located between Kearsarge North Mountain and Peaked Mountain. The rocky summit provides views of Maine and New Hampshire's White Mountains. Cranmore Mountain Resort is located on its western subpeak, Cranmore Mountain.
The Mountain Division is a railroad line that was once owned and operated by the Maine Central Railroad (MEC). It stretches from Portland, Maine on the Atlantic Ocean, through the Western Maine Mountains and White Mountains of New Hampshire, ending at St. Johnsbury, Vermont in the Northeast Kingdom. The line was abandoned in 1983 by MEC's successor, Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI). Guilford retained a stub between Portland and Westbrook. A section in New Hampshire remains in use by heritage railway Conway Scenic Railroad.
Crawford Depot, also known as Maine Central Passenger Railway Station, is a historic passenger railroad station at the top of Crawford Notch in the Bretton Woods area of the town of Carroll, New Hampshire. Built in 1891, it is a surviving emblem of the importance of the railroad in the area's history as a tourist destination, and is one of the finest examples of Queen Anne railroad architecture in northern New England. Now home to a visitors center operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is also the northern terminus of most trains on the "Notch Train" service of the Conway Scenic Railroad.
Harz granite is found in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. It may be divided into five types, all of which were widely used as natural stone: Knaupsholz granite, Birkenkopf granite, Wurmberg granite, Königskopf granite and Ilsestein granite. The first three granites were widely used in North Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and, later, also in East Germany. Knaupsholz granite was "for a long time one of the most important types of cut stone in the former GDR".
Conway granite is a typically pink biotite granite. It is amphibole-free and of coarse particle size.
Fryeburg is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,369 at the 2020 census. Fryeburg is home to Fryeburg Academy, a semi-private preparatory school, and the International Musical Arts Institute. The town is also site of the Fryeburg Fair, which each October attracts approximately 300,000 visitors.
The Hardwick and Woodbury Railroad was a short-line railroad serving the towns of Hardwick and Woodbury, Vermont. Built to serve the local granite industry by bringing rough stone from the quarries to the cutting-houses, the railroad was about 7 miles (11 km) long, plus leased track, extended to about 11 miles (18 km) at its greatest extent. It connected with only one other railroad, the St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain, in Hardwick.
The Woodbury Granite Company (WGC) was a producer of rough and finished granite products. Incorporated in 1887, purchased and significantly reorganized in 1896, and expanded by merger in 1902 and thereafter, the company operated quarries principally in Woodbury, Vermont, but its headquarters and stone-finishing facilities were located in nearby Hardwick. Beginning as a quarrier and seller of rough stone, the company expanded into the business of finishing cut stone and grew from there. It made its name as a supplier of architectural (structural) granite, and grew to become the United States' largest producer, supplying the stone for many notable buildings, including several state capitols, numerous post offices, and many office buildings.