Limecrest: A Sussex County landmark

Last month’s celebration at Limecrest Quarry was supposed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the site, but new information about Limecrest’s history confirms it was a belated birthday. Recent research documents that quarrying operations have taken place at the site since about 1904. And it all goes back to Thomas Alva Edison, who left a wide footprint on Sussex County beginning in the late nineteenth century. Edison initially came up to this area for the iron that had been mined at the old Ogden Mine since before the Revolutionary War. He created a very large iron ore concentrating works in Sparta connected with the mine. In the late 1890s, he moved the operation from Sparta Mountain to Stewartsville near Phillipsburg, where he also ran a plant to manufacture Portland cement. To make concrete, you need limestone to use to manufacture lime. And by 1904 research shows that he was getting that limestone from Limecrest. At the time, the quarry was known as Calcite Stone Ridge, we are told, and then as Crest Moor about the time that Edison was taking limestone from here for that concrete process. He did this for about 2 years, via the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway that ran near the plant and had a spur into the plant. He said that Sparta had the best limestone, but that transportation costs forced him to look to quarries closer to Stewartsville to supply the cement factory. As in so many other things, Edison was a pioneer with cement. Before he started working with the material so common today, buildings were of wood. Edison changed the way people thought of buildings by showing that they could be built of poured concrete. He even constructed a number of concrete houses, some of which are still standing and occupied, to demonstrate his idea. His technology allowed for large-scale pouring of concrete and went into such buildings as the Wheatsworth Mill in Hamburg, which was the forerunner off Nabisco; Yankee Stadium; and Princeton University’s Palmer Stadium, which was build in 1913 and is named for the family that ran the New Jersey Zinc Co. in nearby Franklin and Ogdensburg. Back then, Ogdensburg was still known as “the Burg” and was a part of Sparta Township. About 1919, a man named Bixler, who worked for Edison and lived in Easton, Pa., and another named Horn started the plant we know as Lime Crest Limestone Products Corp., and that has continued on through today with various other names such as: Southdown, Cemex, and Limecrest Quarry. This quarry produced material for agricultural products, building material for roads and landscaping, and was one of the largest employers in Sussex County for the century. It also manufactured powdered limestone that was added to chicken feed to produce harder shells on the eggs. Thus the “Lady Lime Crest: The Gizzardless Hen” on the attached photo, on her way via private airplane, to an agricultural show ca 1945. Mining was the original industry in the area. In the early 1800s, the western section of Sparta was known as Howellsville. There were several mills along the stream there, and one was a plaster mill. Undoubtedly, the plaster was made with limestone from the quarry right across the street. The stone was pulverized with a waterwheel utilizing the water power in the stream. Such milling made the area to be known as Sussex Mills by the 1870s. Also, by then, the railroad came through and a lime kiln was built to produce lime. This kiln about one half mile to the west of the plant, and still can be seen along the roadway near the railroad interchange at Warbasse Junction. Part of the quarry is known as “Indian Mine.” At present more research is needed, but it has been suggested that the Native Americans of long-ago quarried the known chert and flint for arrows and tools and also used graphite for face paint. When Edison moved in, he received scores of patents for revolutionary ways to process iron ore. Some of these processes are still in use today, such as the roller-bearing conveyor belt. Today, the iron mines, like the zinc mines in Ogdensburg and Franklin, are shut down. But Limecrest Quarry continues to produce limestone and lime. It’s also recently gained fame in other ways. Last fall, a music video was shot on the site by Thalia, a Spanish singer and a sensation in many Hispanic cultures. I understand it will be released in the near future. Much of the plant shows up in this video. Finally, the Lake Mohawk Ski Hawks put on a fabulous show in the aqua-blue waters of the quarry. That was another first in Sparta. Bill Truran is a member and Trustee of the Sparta Historical Society and author of the recent books Sparta, NJ: Head of the Wallkill A History of Sparta in Images and Words, and Images of America: Franklin, Hamburg, Ogdensburg, & Hardyston, and the forthcoming (September 2006): Mining for America: The Franklin-Sterling Hill, NJ Zinc Mines and The Fluorescent Capital of the World: A History of Franklin Zinc in Images and Words.