Indiana Limestone

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Typical Indiana Limestone Quarry.

Indiana Limestone or Bedford Limestone is a common term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford. Bloomington, Indiana has been noted to have the highest quality quarried limestone in the United States. Salem limestone, like all limestone, is a rock primarily formed of calcium carbonate. The limestone was deposited over millions of years as marine fossils decomposed at the bottom of a shallow inland sea which covered most of the present-day Midwestern United States during the Mississippian Period.

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[edit] History

Sanders Quarry, an abandoned Salem Limestone quarry, has cliffs of up to 90 feet and water up to 30 feet.

Native Americans were some of the first people to discover limestone in Indiana. It was not long before settlers used this rock around their windows and doors and for memorials around town. The first quarry was started in 1827, and by 1929 Hoosier quarries yielded 12,000,000 ft3 (340,000 cubic meters) of usable stone. The expansion of the railroads brought great need for limestone to build bridges and tunnels and Indiana was the place to get it. American architecture of the late 19th and early 20th century included a lot of limestone detail work on buildings but as architectural styles changed so did the demand of limestone. With the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 the price of alternative building materials skyrocketed so Indiana Limestone reemerged as an energy efficient building material.[1]

Salem limestone was officially designated as the "state stone" of Indiana by the Indiana General Assembly in 1971.[2]

[edit] Today

Today Indiana Limestone is part of a high-end market. It is mostly used on the exterior of homes and commercial buildings. With the impact of acid rain it is not used in monuments as it was in the 19th century. Many of Indiana's official buildings, such as the State capitol building, the downtown monuments, the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, many buildings at Indiana University in Bloomington, and the Indiana Government Center are all examples of Indiana architecture made with Indiana limestone. Indiana limestone has also been used in many other famous structures in the US, such as the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, the St. Anthony Society Chapter House at Yale,[3] and the Washington National Cathedral. In addition, 35 of the 50 state capitol buildings are made of Indiana limestone.[4]

[edit] Buildings

Buildings such as the Biltmore Estate, Empire State Building, The Pentagon, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum feature Indiana limestone in their exteriors. Indiana limestone was used extensively in rebuilding Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire. New Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York, opened in 2009, extensively utilizes Indiana Limestone paneling on its exterior facade.

Indiana limestone has been particularly popular for the construction of university buildings in the Midwest. The Neogothic campus of the University of Chicago is almost entirely constructed out of Bedford Indiana Limestone, in keeping with the trend of post-Fire buildings using the material. The campus of Washington University in St. Louis, both new construction and its original buildings, makes use of Indiana Limestone (along with Missouri Red Granite) in its collegiate gothic architecture. The majority of Indiana University (Bloomington Campus) was constructed out of limestone. In addition, many buildings on the north side of Michigan State University use Indiana limestone. The rock was used as far north as the Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton.

[edit] Popular culture references

  • In the 1979 film Breaking Away, the main character's father is a former limestone quarry worker who reminisces with his son about his pride in playing a role in the campus architecture; significant scenes involve the son swimming and lounging with friends at one of the local limestone quarries.

[edit] See also

[edit] References and footnotes

  1. ^ "History of Indiana Limestone". http://iliai.com/index.php?pageId=44. Retrieved on 2007-07-11. 
  2. ^ "Indiana State River and Indiana State Stone". http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/emblems/embriver.html. 
  3. ^ "VANDERBILT GIFT TO 'SHEFF'; Frederick W. to Build..." (PDF). http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C04E5DB153FE633A2575AC0A9619C946296D6CF. 
  4. ^ "Lawrence County Limestone History". Lawrence County, Indiana. http://www.limestonecountry.com/Limestone.html. Retrieved on 2007-09-11. 

[edit] External links

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