Queenston Quarry - Historical Perspective

The Queenston Quarry (QQ) opened as a building stone quarry on the edge of the escarpment in 1837 by John Brown, a Scottish stone-cutter and masonry contractor. At the final days of it operations, QQ was one of Canada's longest continuously operating quarries. For years it was mined for blocks of the "blue" dolomite quarried from the Gasport Member of the Lockport Formation. Most limestones are more or less pure forms of calcium carbonate. A dolomite is the same sort of limestone, changed into a more marble-like rock by the magnesium salts in the salt water seas, of which it was once a sea bottom.

Building stone cut from QQ was sought after for prestigious stone buildings, historic homes and government buildings throughout southern Ontario. Notable uses include the Niagara-on-the-Lake Court House, Brock's Monument of 1840 and the present monument of 1856, culverts, tunnels and bridges of the Great Western and Grand Trunk Railways, Table Rock House and Administration Building, Queen Victoria Park, the 2nd Welland Canal, stone towers of the Lewiston-Queenston Suspension Bridge, New York State Artpark, Canada House in London England, east block of Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, gate and fence at the Governor-General's residence , McMaster University, Hamilton and Queen's University and recent restoration at the Ontario Legislative Buildings, Queen's Park.

The most attractive feature of this stone is that it tends to become whiter as it weathers. Indiana Limestone, a competitive stone mined in Indiana is not as hard as QQ's stone and tends to weather darker with time and is subject to peculiar surface softening. In late 1978 the supply of building stone from the Gasport layer dwindled to the point that further quarrying of this stone was uneconomical. Thereafter, further quarrying concentrated on production of crushed stone aggregate for construction and road building.

At one point in time some ten companies employing up to 600 men operating independently in the quarry on a royalty basis. The recorded owners/operators were John Brown (the original owner), William Hendershot (major operator 1800's), Johnson and Murray (late 1800's), Lowreys of St. Davids (1905-1924), Canada Crushed Stone Company Limited (1925), Steetly Industries (1952), Redland Quarries and the current owner, Lafarge Canada since 1998.

In 1982, The Queenston Quarry received the Annual Design Award of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects, for their final site rehabilitation plan. In 1987 one-hundred acres of wooded escarpment land including the lands of the Bruce Trail was transferred through the Ontario Heritage Foundation to the Niagara Parks Commission. In 1988, the Ontario Heritage Foundation recognized Steetley Industries Limited as a "Friend of the Escarpment" for this significant contribution to the protection of the Niagara Escarpment.