Montrose,  Henry County,  Missouri

“This quarry, which is owned and operated by W. H. Morris, was opened about twenty-five years ago (1879), but at present (1904) it is operated only intermittently

The quarry is located three and one-half miles north of town and is situated on the west side of a ravine, along which the sandstone outcrops.  The stone has been quarried into the hill about twenty feet and about one-fourth of a mile along the ravine.

The face consists of nine feet of sandstone, made up of the following beds from top to bottom:

3 feet Clay stripping 3 feet Buff to gray sandstone, containing nodules of iron oxide 1 ft. 6 in. Fine grained, gray sandstone, the hardest in the quarry 4 feet Fine grained, soft, gray sandstone, containing hard round nodules of ironstone.  These nodules do not occur with any regularity, but are much more prevalent in some parts than in others.

Large roundish boulders of quartzite, which are too difficult to cut and dress to be used for building purposes, occur in the soil stripping.  Below the floor of the quarry there is a bed of decomposed sandstone, in layers from four to eight inches thick. It contains iron oxide along the bedding planes.

On the opposite side of the ravine, the sandstone outcrops in beds from two to six inches in thickness.  These beds have been quarried to some extent for flagging, curbing, sills and steps.  This stone is in all respects similar to that on the west side of the ravine, although the stripping is somewhat less. The abutments for the bridge on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad, at Bear Creek, were constructed out of stone from the opening on the west side of the ravine.”

Source: Quarrying Industry of Missouri, Vol. 2, 1904.