Quarry - Marble Springs

Quarry

T. M. Davidson started Marble Quarry in 1874 to develop deposits in the [[[connections:devils-punch-bowl|Devil’s Punch Bowl]]. At first, he hauled his great blocks of marble on sleighs to Carbondale to be shipped. After he persuaded Pitkin County to back the Crystal River Railroad, he could ship out even great blocks like the seventeen-ton block for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Wealthy from the quarry, he built Goliath Manor and brought out a bride from one of the better Boston families. He donated enough marble to build the Marble Edifice, a church which also served as a school and |town hall. The workers lived in ten-by-ten cabins made from felled pines.

In 1887, thirty-one miners were killed when a cliff face collapsed.

An 1894 strike led by the United Mine Workers Union against the low pay, hazardous working conditions, and poor sanitary conditions lasted for three months. Conditions improved somewhat. Only three lives were lost in the strike.

Another fatal accident took the lives of fourteen men when a pack train hauling marble to the railroad stumbled back into Devil’s Punch Bowl in 1897. In 1898, the Spanish-American War broke out. Some of the workers left, but the quarry had enough orders to enable it to continue.

Another strike erupted in 1901 and lasted for a year. Workers were hired back at less pay, three dollars a day rather than four, and the same fourteen hours a day.

Colorado passed a law in 1903 demanding an eight-hour day for workers along with other reforms. This law went largely unnoticed in the quarry.

In 1913, some thawed dynamite exploded, and twenty-five workers were killed. This year also saw the Great Strike up and down Crystal River Valley, which marble workers joined. The workers finally accepted T. M. Davidson’s offer of a ten-percent wage increase, further safety measures, and promises to comply with Colorado state labor laws.

Mr. Davidson died in 1914, but his business associates from Denver kept the quarry and manor going.

Depending on orders and economic stability, Marble Quarry continued to employ anywhere from 20 to 75 workers until the Great Crash of 1929, when orders ceased. The quarry disbanded¹.

Marble Springs 2.0 screenshot of the Quarry

Footnotes

1. Mad Moses of Marble

Born and raised in Marble Springs, Ephriam Horner grew gradually into the role of young, mad prophet. As a small boy, Ephraim never cared for classes or books and would wander away from the schoolroom. He followed the Crystal River, scaling the narrow canyon walls.Holding God's earth with my fingers he would say when asked where he had been.To understand my God he would answer when asked why.

Pastor Horner at first blessed the fervor in his eldest son. When it became apparent to all of Marble Springs that Ephraim's fervor had ripened into a full-blown hatred of man's mining and quarry operations, the Pastor was still reluctant to condemn his son.Everyone sees the Will of the Lord in a different waybecame one of his favorite sermons.

Ephraim's passion settled into tormenting and taunting the quarry workers as they went to and from the morning and evening shifts. The workers at first patted him on the back and gave him small marble carvings, which only served to raise his rantings aboutthe destruction of God's flesh. When Ephraim started to wave a fully loaded Colt and call for flooding the quarry, the workers let him alone.

T. M. Davidson capitalized on the publicity and invited columnists from the Rocky Mountain News, Ouray Times, and Georgetown Gazette to a sight of biblical passion in the wilderness, our own Mad Moses of Marble. But the news soon became too old. Ephraim left Marble Springs soon after tourists began to take the train up to the quarry to see him.