Comprehensive

Investigation to Determine

Commercial Possibilities

of this Section Proposed.

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NATURAL ADVANTAGES

MANY IN THIS REGION

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Increased Eastern Demand for Sandstone, Limestone and

Granite Caused Attention

to This Part of State

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New Ulm may be in for a big industrial boom, if investigations by geologists in the Minnesota valley are up to the belief of a number of residents of this city, who have been interested for years in the natural advantages that are said to be extant in this immediate vicinity. Among the resources that are said to abound in almost unlimited quantities within easy access to this city are granite, pottery clay, glass sand, etc.

The granite at Redstone, under government test, is pronounced as good as any on the continent, but for some reason the quarries have been operated intermittently since the first crusher was installed over twenty years ago, but it is anticipated that some day, Redstone will be the scene of a vast industrial movement, when there is an accelerated demand for crushed rock for permanent highway improvements.

The Reason for Investigation.

Increased eastern demand for Minnesota sandstone, limestone and granite has directed attention to the resources of the Minnesota valley in this respect and quarry operators have announced plans for a comprehensive geological survey to determine the commercial possibilities of the valley stone.

Albert Larson, a Minneapolis architect, has called attention to the fact that the new $15,000,000 museum at Philadelphia was faced entirely with Mankato and Kasota stone, and pointed out that quarrying of building stone is a great potential industry of the state now being developed on a comparatively small scale.

In a report of geological survey of the Minnesota valley in 1882, N. H. Winchell, then state geologist, classed the stone quarried at Mankato, Kasota, St. Peter, Ottawa and Shakopee as Shakopee limestone. The report contained the following description of this stone: “This formation, lying next above the Jordan sandstone, plays an important part in the topography and geology of the lower portion of the Minnesota valley. It does not vary much in its composition, but its bedding is subject to irregularities. It is broken and nodular and is also inter-laminated in some places particularly those toward the north-with shale, and also with white sandstone. Its upper surface is quite uneven, and the overlying sandstone is deposited on its irregularities, filling the depressions. Its thickness is about 70 feet.”

In addition to a stone for building purposes, cretaceous limestones of the manufacture of lime, and the cretaceous clays have proved highly satisfactory for brick and pottery. The drift clays also are used fer brick making. Stimulation of quarrying and associated industries is expected to follow the present agitation.

Brown County Journal

March 26, 1926

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