List of Quarries in North Carolina
Here at DeFeo Materials, we source the best North Carolina quarries for the highest quality stone and bring it all together to offer you a wide range of stone types, shapes, and colors. When you see beautiful decorative river rock in a landscape you may not be thinking of how this stone was discovered, blasted, and transported. These quarries are where that all begins.
Table on Contents
North Carolina Quarries and What They Produce
What Are Quarries and What Do They Do?
What Are the Most Common Materials Found in North Carolina Quarries?
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DeFeo Materials is not associated with any of the following quarries
Our List
1. Salem Stone Corporation
This company has several facilities that are available in some areas, including the Roanoke, New River valleys of Virginia, Northwestern North Carolina, and Southside Virginia. They produce many different types of crushed stone native to these regions as well as several sand types.
2. Radford Quarries, Inc.
This quarry has some popular products, for example, sand, dirt, deicer, crushed stone, etc. It has already been serving all customers since 1980.
3. Mathis Quarries, Inc
This company is ready to offer a wide variety of crushed stone materials. There are some popular products that are available in this quarry, for example, ABC Crusher Run, clean stone gravel, dry screen gravel, rock dust, rip rap, etc.
4. Lake Norman Quarry
When we are talking about some popular quarries in North Carolina, we cannot forget this incredible quarry on Lake Norman. This quarry produces many great products for their customers, for example, concrete, aggregates, asphalt, etc. This quarry is also home to some natural stone products.
5. Wake Stone Corporation
This is a locally owned quarry that will deliver the best products for all customers. This quarry is specially designed to meet everyone’s needs in construction projects. It has some locations in North Carolina, including Knightdale, Cary, Moncure, and Battleboro.
6. Blue Rock Soapstone Quarry
Soapstone, an impure rock which forms in many parts of the Piedmont mountains, this material was common for carved stone bowls. Test excavations were conducted at the site in 1979 by Archaeology Branch staff and a report on the tests was published in the North Carolina Archaeological Council Publications Series in 1982.
There you have it, our shortlist of North Carolina quarries that we will add to for years to come. If you want a one stop shop instead of bouncing from quarry to quarry and dealing with their limited hours and product, contact us here at DeFeo Materials and speak with one of our friendly landscape design experts.
North Carolina Quarries and What They Produce
What Are Quarries and What Do They Do?
A quarry is essentially a type of mine that is used to extract stones and such that will be repurposed into building materials. Quarries belong to a group of mines called open pit mines.The reasoning for this name resides in the fact that these mines are open to Earth’s surface. Quarries in North Carolina are no different than your average quarry. They exist to dig up any stone-related material that would commonly be used in construction. North Carolina, however, does have more of certain types of quarries than other states.
What Are the Most Common Materials Found in North Carolina Quarries?
The types of materials that North Carolina quarries specialize in are river rocks, limestone and granite, which isn’t dissimilar to other quarries in other states, but they have a fairly large number of quarries of these three types just generally speaking. While Granite is a specific naturally occurring rock, river rocks is a bit more nebulous of a name. River rocks are round stones that appear to have been rounded and smoothed by erosion and weathering thanks to running water. Many believe that river rock is directly produced from rivers or lakes. However, round stone comes from deposits left behind, beside rivers from glaciers. These glaciers moved the river bottoms and deposited the minerals and stone nearby. DeFeo Materials offers a wide variety of river rock types and colors. Limestone is in abundance in North Carolina. Limestone is a source of lime (calcium oxide), which is used in steel manufacturing, mining, paper production, water treatment and purification, and plastic production. Lime also has major applications in the manufacture of glass and in agriculture. We can break down the types of quarries in North Carolina into two categories. Things like sand and gravel would be one category, while things like rocks and stone would be on their own.
What Are Sand and Gravel Quarries?
Sand and gravel quarries are just quarries that are used to extract sand and gravel from the Earth. Instead of pulling full rocks, or other natural building materials, more loose materials are pulled, like sand and gravel. Other things like sand and gravel that are pulled from these quarries in North Carolina are common fill, crushed stone, topsoil, and washed sand. These all vary in value and aesthetic, but each of them has a place in the North Carolina construction and landscaping industry as a go-to material. Some of them are quite easy to find and acquire. Things like common fill, sand, and topsoil are fairly common and easy to come by. As far as the application of these loose materials goes, the possibilities are fairly endless. Whether it’s a large-scale project for a company building some large building, or working over a large area of land, or it’s for a suburban house looking for a new driveway, loose materials like these are very helpful in many situations. It’s their versatility that keeps them in demand always.
What Comes from North Carolina Stone Quarries?
North Carolina stone quarries, like sand and gravel quarries, exist only as a site for the excavation and processing of stone building materials and resources. North Carolina stone quarries in particular produce certain kinds of stones over others. North Carolina quarries produce stone materials such as riprap, river rock, utility rock, and basic stones as well. Obviously, these larger stones have a number of applications both similar to, and wildly different from the looser materials that were mentioned above. They can be used to fill in driveways, decorate gardens, or even decorate waterfront pieces of land in a more large-scale sort of way. The stone materials, like the loose materials,also vary in price depending on their rarity and availability in the state. Thankfully, the quarries of North Carolina contain a large variety of stones and loose materials, but it still has its limits and sometimes a resource you may want for your project may not be available.
The History of Quarries in NC
North and South Carolina have what is known as the “Carolina Slate Belt” cutting right through it. As such, the soil in many parts of both states are chock full of stone residue and chunks. Mount Airy is one of the most well known quarry towns in North Carolina. Quarries around the area existed as far back as the mid-18th century but were worked only sporadically. The first sale of the land that now comprises the quarry was to Thomas Smith from the state in 1780. The land was largely considered worthless because it could not be farmed. Ownership changed many times over the years and the area was used primarily as a picnic ground. All that changed with the coming of the railroad in 1888. Thomas Woodroffe (or Woodruff), Sr., an English businessman from Greensboro, purchased the land for $5,000, sold stock for a new granite quarrying business, and began commercial operations in 1889. Granite from the 90-acre quarry (the largest open-faced quarry in the world) is pure in color and texture; a piece removed today matches a piece removed a century ago. Mount Airy’s granite has been used for several churches and schools around the area as well as for projects farther afield, such as government buildings in Raleigh, the Arlington Bridge, and the Wright Brothers and Albert Einstein Memorials.
Order Quarry Direct from DeFeo Materials
DeFeo Materials provides a number of services related to North Carolina hauling and trucking. We will handle every deal with precision and professionalism. When it comes to quarries, and material delivery, we provide multiple services. We can take resources and building materials and haul them straight to wherever you may need them. Whether that be a plant, directly to a jobsite that is being worked on by a larger company, or to someone who just ordered a large supply of resources. Is your landscape supply yard located on a railway? DeFeo Materials is now offering direct rail service for your supply yard! We currently serve customers across the north and southeast and are looking to expand even further. If you are interested in expanding your product line contact our experts today. Contact DeFeo Materials, and we’ll get the job done right.