Rock of Ages Quarry Visitor Center, Vermont

The largest granite quarries in the world, they say, and possibly in fact (as it all depends on how you measure them), are in Vermont, around the town of Graniteville, south of Barre. Granite has been quarried here since the 1820s, but it took the railway, coming later in the century, to provide a way for this high grade material to get to markets elsewhere in any quantity (granite is hard and heavy - a one-foot cube weighs 170 pounds). The Rock of Ages company now owns most of the operating quarries in the district. It was already an agglomeration of several companies when it took its name, Rock of Ages, from the religious hymn in 1925. The company continued to expand, acquiring other local companies and quarries in New Hampshire, Quebec, Georgia, and beyond. Rock of Ages now has over 40 quarries, is the largest supplier of granite memorials (tombstones) in the country, and supplies cut stone to building construction projects all over the World. It is owned (since 1984) by Swenson Granite, a family-run company that has operated quarries in New Hampshire for over 100 years. Tours of the largest of the local quarries depart from the Visitor Center. There is also a gift shop.