Marblehead Underground Quarry

The Marblehead Underground Quarry is an expansive, graffiti covered chamber, that up until the late 1930s produced dimensional building stones. These blocks were shipped out by rail and used in the construction of commercial and institutional structures in the region and all across the west. We’ll list a couple of noteworthy examples later in this piece, but first a little backstory.

The marble here is of good quality, the deposits large (also exploited at several additional points, via open cuts) and easily worked. The remote location (West Kootenay BC), however, was somewhat of a hindrance and production relatively modest on a year to year basis. Still, they remained in business for many decades, even if operations were sometimes sporadic and only took a small percentage of the available material.

There is mention of marble being quarried in the immediate area going back to the 1890s, but the main player, Canadian Granite & Marble, started about 1909 and continued for over a quarter century. The last blocks were cut in 1938-1939* and by that time marble had mostly fallen out of favour in the building industry.

Welcome to Marblehead Underground Quarry.

By this point service on the railway, a Canadian Pacific branch, was hit or miss (the line closed a only few years later) so this probably didn’t help matters. In later years marble was quarried for cemetery memorials and some material supplied for other purposes, but building stones remained the main business.

Staring in the 1980s, there was talk of restarting the Marblehead Quarry, but nothing more than proposals ever came of it. Marble was again in demand, but not so much as structural material and instead for tiling and other decorative purposes.

“To the company’s knowledge, there is no similar marble produced in North America, and the production of similar marble produced in Europe obtains a premium price.” (Marblehead International Mining Inc report). Detailed plans touched on all aspects of extraction, marketing and shipping (by truck).

This very chamber would the starting point for any work and would allow production to continue year round and unencumbered by snow. It falls deep here and underground workings afforded an operational advantage.

From a BC Minister of Mines assessment: “The marble is banded and medium grained. Joint and fracture density varies with location but large blocks are available….fine to medium grained, white to bluish grey and white striped…”

The colour/banding of the stone is said to be unlike any other and lauded as a sales advantage.

Marble is a metamorphosed rock (often limestone, as is the case here) with a crystalline texture and capable of taking a polish. Metamorphosed means it’s been altered by heat, great pressure or chemical forces (or some combo therein) and differs from their original structure.

A rail-mounted cutting machine was left behind and interestingly it was not salvaged when the operation closed. Its placement shows they were ready to work the wall right in front. We tried to make sense of how it functioned, but it seems in these matters we’re even more dense than the marble being worked.

Some quarry saws seemed to use a chain type set up, other are more band saw like and some relied on loops of grit-impregnated wire to do the cutting. Other times drills were used and then followed by wedges and plenty of hammering to pry a block out.

Remains of the powerhouse, and what’s left of the boiler that once sat inside, are right beside the quarry entrance. Old maps and photos show there were many other support buildings here, along with rigging to remove blocks and load them onto rail cars. The track used to run a short distance away and this a rather convenient feature when it came to shipping material out.

This railway branch, incidentally, was isolated and trains had to later take a barge-trip to reconnect with the rest of the CPR network…but that’s another story.

In more recent times the spray-can brigade has left their mark on these underground workings and make of it what you will. Some of the graffiti is actually quite creative but the rest tends to just blend together into multi-coloured homogenous blob.

There’s cryptic symbolism, messages of love, inspirational quotes, the always popular so and so from somewhere, showed up here at some date, a shout out to one’s favourite band, plenty of phallic imagery, lots of four-letter words we can’t repeat here, random splotches and a myriad of unintelligible stuff. In some places the messages are many layers deep. Numerous spent spray cans lie about on the ground.

Photos of the workings from the 1970s and before show the chamber mostly free of graffiti.

Clint put in more effort and instead of spray cans used hammer and chisel instead. Marble is relatively easy to work with proper tools, but still it took much effort on this person’s part.

One passage is written in Latin, a work of the Roman poet Horace, but incomplete and truncated by a couple lines. As shown it reads:

Hoc Erat in Votis
Modus agri non ita magnus
Hortus ubi et tecto vicinus jugis
Aquae fons et paullum silvae super his foret
(also RIP Terry Fox).

The following is missing from the end of the poem and shown here for the record: “Auctius atque di melius fecere. Bene est. Nil amplius oro…” We’re not sure how Terry Fox (assuming it’s Marathon of Hope Terry Fox) fits into the mix and suspect only Clint knows.

We ran the entire works through several Latin to English translators and got varying results, but the following seems to be the most widely accepted rendition:

This is what I prayed for – a piece of land
not very large, where there would be a
garden, and near the house a spring of
ever-flowing water, and also a bit of a
wood. More and better than this have the
gods done for me. I am content. Nothing
more do I ask.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus “Horace” and from his Satires works.

Here’s another passage from Clint, in English this time and with some obvious Freemason leanings:

After death
alive forever
culvert of angels
join your kind at the
birth the angel
exploding star
threw the great eye
after life.

Deep stuff! Various Masonic symbols are seen: the compass/square combo, blazing stars, the acacia tree and interestingly, the stone selected here is pyramidal in shape. That form is frequently associated with Freemasonry, even if it’s not recognized officially by the fraternity and that’s according to the Masons of California website. Often the pyramid is paired with an “all seeing eye”, or the great eye as mentioned in the passage, but it’s not seen here.

It’s curious stuff and we’re not exactly sure what message is being shared or even if there is a message. It’s over our heads, so you be the judge and interpret it as best you can. A life changing revelation, here deep in the bowels of the earth, or some Templar-esque mystery or simply someone having fun?

There’s plenty of evidence showing the chamber is party place and left overs from various bush-bashes litter the ground. Glass shards, crushed cans (Old Milwaukee appears the beer of choice), half burned pallets with nails sticking out and other sometimes sharp detritus are all hazards underfoot.

The spray-can brigade has left their mark.

Some of the lowest workings have collected pooled water, but otherwise the interior is mostly high and dry. The chamber goes back some twenty metres, is about sixty metre across and the ceiling approaches ten metres high. It’s hard to show the scale, but in one photo a vehicle parked at the entrance helps in that regard. It’s something to see, even if by quarrying standards the operation rates as rather small.

Here’s a partial list of buildings that incorporated Marblehead stone: Nelson BC (Bank of Commerce), Revelstoke BC (courthouse), Cardston Alberta (Cardston Temple), and Winnipeg Manitoba (Great West Life Building). Many of these structures are not just still around but also historically recognized. Marble shipments were also made to Vancouver BC (no building mentioned) and Edmonton Alberta (a theatre) and we’re certain there’s more.

*Company records show 1936, but area history books state work continued for a couple years more.

Know more (new windows): Marble Quarrying, Revelstoke BC Courthouse, Cardston Alberta Temple, Great West Life Building Winnipeg and Freemasonry.

They’re saying…

”Chris and Connie are the real deal – their adventures are truly interesting and fun!” Justine Cooke.

Random awesomeness…
Old Slocan Highway by the Lake.
Irricana United Church.
Prairie Swimming Pool.

Something to say and no one to say it to? Go here: Contact Us!

Date of Adventure: May 2022 and 2023.
Location(s): The Wilds of British Columbua.
Article references and thanks: British Columbia Ministry of Mines, Book: Circle of Silver by Milton Parent, Masons of California and Dale for hosting us.

Cutting machinery left behind.

They extracted dimensional stone for the building industry.

Marble was quarried here into the late 1930s.

Car adds scale – it’s a big cavern.

Blocks were shipped out by rail.

The deposit is big and they only took a small amount.

Boiler remains of the old powerhouse.

Some of the work is quite interesting.

Clint’s name is on many of these carved messages.

It must have taken skill and some time to do.

“After death, alive forever, culvert of angels…”