As Buechel Stone has grown, we have opened and operated additional quarries around the country, all of which are vastly different. Our original quarries contain dolomitic limestone. This is a very hard stone that starts as limestone and through time, heat, water, and compression, the calcium in the limestone was replaced with magnesium. This type of stone is what we knew and worked with for a little over 50 years. It’s quite simple to quarry: remove the overburden, drill and set off a light blast to loosen the stone layers, and quarry it out with a front-end loader. Not only is it fairly straightforward, the layers are also quite flat. The vertical and horizontal seams in the stone make for excellent quarrying and building stone functionality.

But the United States has more to offer than the dolomitic limestone found in Wisconsin. To become a natural stone company with the best domestic stone selection in the industry, we needed to expand our quarrying operations. This was not an easy task, and we are still learning how different the quarrying process is in other parts of the country.

When Buechel Stone opened operations in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, we knew it was going to be different from what we were used to, and we were excited about it. Quarrying in the mountains really helps you appreciate how amazing the formation of the world is. As you could see in the pictures from Wisconsin, everything sat nice and flat. You probably learned in your Geography 101 class how mountains are formed in several ways. One formation happens when layered (aka sedimentary) stones are forced into each other at a fracture line. This force takes these horizontal layers and pushes them vertically. As you can see in the image above, extracting this stone takes a little more planning.

The thicker layers and less dense stone allow us to cut the stone with large saws, similar to a chainsaw. The saw is set to run in long stretches, cutting vertically into the bed of the stone and allowing us to create large blocks of stone. These blocks are later cut into slabs of varying thickness depending on the needs of the order.

As unique and impressive as all these different quarries are, they do all share one thing in common that is also important to Buechel Stone; reclaiming the land and giving it useful life after we are done with it.

There are some people against quarrying of any kind, but often that is because they do not realize how important quarries are to the world. As long as mankind exists, there will be a need for natural stone raw material in almost all aspects of life.

At Buechel Stone, we take this responsibility seriously and are mindful of what we use. Although there are requirements for reclamation, it does not mean they are always followed – especially once you leave the modern world.

Buechel Stone sees its Rockstar workforce and the earth in the same way – both are vitally important to our success. We know for us to succeed long-term, we must be willing to do the things others might not. This blog’s quote, “Always look beyond what you can see,” is very fitting. When you purchase stone quarried by Buechel Stone, you are raising the bar on expectations for how people and resources are treated. When you purchase something else, what is beyond the stone? How was that person that created the stone in front of you treated? Was the land left in ruins after the quarry’s useful life was up?