THE EDWARD F. REGENHARDT QUARRIES.
Mr. Regenhardt operates two quarries, one, the "Normal" quarry,
is located just east of the fair grounds, near the west limits of the city;
and the other is located two miles south of the city, just beyond the Kille-
brew quarry.
The Normal quarry consists of a single irregular opening, 70 feet
east and west and 100 feet north and south, having a maximum vertical
face of 35 feet. This quarry was opened in 1901 to obtain the stone to
be used in the Normal school building at Cape Girardeau.
This stone is a coarsely crystalline, heavily bedded limestone, having
much the appearance of marble. It is almost pure white in the bottom of
the quarry, but has a faint pinkish or bluish gray tint near the surface.
Fine suture joints occur from two inches to three feet apart. The stone
contains small cavities, known locally as "sand holes." These are not
sufficiently abundant to cause any considerable waste.
The quarry is covered with a very light stripping of clay. Large
irregular cavities and open joints, resulting from weathering, occur
throughout the quarry. These are usually filled with red clay, which
occasionally extends to the bottom of the quarry. These cavities and
open joints make it difficult to obtain large blocks, free from the effects
of weathering. It is the practice to quarry irregular blocks by hand and
saw them in the mill. The stone in the upper part of the quarry is said
to be harder than that deeper down. It can be sawed at an average rate
of two inches per hour. The stone works nicely under the hammer, and
has a pleasing appearance when used as in the Normal school buildings
at Cape Girardeau. An excellent grade of white lime is manufactured
out of this stone.
This quarry is equipped with a Wordwell channeling machine, a
crushing plant and two gang-saws.
The second quarry operated by Mr. Regenhardt is located about two
miles south of the city on a bluff just south of the Killebrew crusher, on
land leased from St. Vincent's College. It has a face 70 feet long and
about 15 feet high. The following are the thicknesses of each of the beds
from top to bottom: 4 ft., 1 ft. 5 in., 1 ft. 8 in., 1 ft. 9 in., 1 ft., 1 ft.
10 in., 1 ft. 2 in., 2 ft. 4 in., I ft. 2 in., 1 ft. 8 in. Some of the stratifica-
tion planes have a black color. Near the crossing of these planes and the
joints the stone weathers more rapidly than in other parts of the quarry.
All the stone in this quarry has the same general texture and color.
It is a very fine grained, compact limestone, having a brownish black to
very dark blue color. It is very hard and breaks with a sub-conchoidal
fracture.
The major joints strike N 40-50 deg. W. A minor set strikes N. 55 deg. E.
These parting planes are taken advantage of in quarrying and are suf-
ficiently far apart to permit the removal of blocks of practically any re-
quired dimensions.
The stone has been used in the basement of the new Normal school
buildings and in other structures in Cape Girardeau. The dark color of
the stone is in striking contrast with the nearly white "Cape marble."
THE WM. REGENHARDT QUARRY.
This quarry is located near the north limits of the city and is situated
on one of the Mississippi river bluffs. The stone, which is known as the
Thebes or Cape Girardeau sandstone, caps the hills along the river. The
first stone used in Cape Girardeau was obtained from this formation.
It is a yellow, fine grained sandstone which is soft when first quarried
but hardens upon exposure. The formation is about fifteen feet thick
and consists of beds from three feet to six feet in thickness. When used
above the ground, it appears to be very durable, as shown by a dwelling
house built out of it in I853. For half a century, this building has been
exposed to the weather without showing any very marked evidence of
deterioration. At one time, this stone was shipped quite extensively
through the extreme southeastern part of Missouri along the Mississippi
river. At present very little is being quarried.
The face of the quarry is about 600 feet long and 15 feet high. It
is covered with a stripping of twenty feet of loess, on account of which, it
is said to have been abandoned.
From THE QUARRYING INDUSTRY OF MISSOURI. – 1904, by E. R. Buckley and H. A. Buehler.