France Stone Co. Middle Point Quarry, Middle Point, Ridge Township, Van Wert County, Ohio, USAi

Regional Level Types
France Stone Co. Middle Point Quarry	Quarry (Flooded)
Middle Point	Point
Ridge Township	Township
Van Wert County	County
Ohio	State
USA	Country

The France Stone Middle Point Quarry is a flooded quarry located west of the village of Middle Point, at the NW¼ of Section 20, Township 2S (Ridge Township), Range 3E. The France Stone Company began operating the Middle Point Quarry on August 14, 1888, just five years after opening its first quarry in Bloomville, Seneca County. The France Stone Company was one of the largest stone producers in the Midwest United States operating numerous quarries in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. A railroad siding was built off the Pennsylvania Railroad's Chicago-Fort Wayne-Pittsburgh mainline and ballast from the quarry was used for various expansion and improvement project contracted by the railroad. The quarry at one time employed over sixty people and produced fifty railroad cars of ballast a day (O'Daffer, 1990; Camp, 2011). A smaller quarry, north of the original quarry was started north of the railroad, but this too is now flooded.

On November 8, 1901 a blasting accident occurred at the quarry involving six men. The Delphos, Ohio newspaper, The Daily Herald, reported that William Reddington, one of the workers, accidently slipped his crowbar into one of the holes that was drilled for blasting and an explosion occurred. William Reddington and his son Edward both sustained major injuries; four men with minor injuries, but nobody died in the explosion.

In 1914-1915, the France Stone Company purchased its largest steam shovel for use in the quarry, where at one point it was transported to use in the Panama Canal (O'Daffer, 1990). The Middle Point Quarry was also one of the first quarries in Ohio to use a belt conveyor in 1920. The main crusher was in the pit of the quarry and trucks transported the stone on the conveyor belt to a railroad car loading pit (Anonymous, 1920). James Bownocker (1915) visited the quarry and noted:

" ...another great quarry in the Monroe, between 40 and 50 acres having been worked over to a depth of 25 feet. The stone is buff near the surface but a little darker below. It is slightly more evenly bedded than is usual in this formation, but not well adapted to masonry. One layer of 18 inches was noted near the base of the quarry, but the cracks break the rock into small pieces, so that after shooting, it is loaded with a steam shovel. The rock is usually not only porous, but full of holes, suggesting in that respect the Cedarville Quarry.

To a small extent stone from this quarry is used for flux, and the company hopes to increase this market. Occasionally farmers pick out pieces for foundations for buildings and the stone does fairly well for that purpose, especially for underground work."

The France Stone Company closed the quarry in 1946 and it flooded shortly thereafter. While it was in its flooded state, it attracted both fisherman who tried to catch large mouth bass and people looking for a cool spot to swim during the summer. In 1956, George France decided reopen the quarry and pump it dry. The flooded quarry at this point was now 78 acres and with two pumps: one that pumped out 1,000 gallons a minute and larger one that pumped an additional 2,200 gallons a minute emptied the entire quarry of water in less than ten months. This second period of quarrying at the Middle Point Quarry by France Stone didn't last long, and in two short years, France Stone decided to finally abandon the quarry and close the plant (Krickich et al.,1958). The quarry then flooded for a second time a few short years later. Van Wert County officials during the 1990s expressed desire to turn the site into a park, but the plan died in development (O'Daffer, 1990).

This locality was not mentioned in either edition of Ernie Carlson’s Minerals of Ohio book, possibly because no historical reference stated that minerals were found here. It is likely that the quarry produced very similar minerals (fluorite, sphalerite, calcite, pyrite, etc.) found at other nearby Van Wert County quarries while it was in operation. The closest quarries with similar mineralized zones as the France Stone Middle Point Quarry is the Suever Stone Quarry in Delphos (Carlson, 1987; Carlson, 1990; Carlson, 1991; Carlson, 2015; Vasichko, 2018; Medici and Richards, 2020) located approximately five miles east of Middle Point and the Ridge Township Quarry located two miles west of Middle Point (Botoman and Stieglitz, 1978; Carlson, 1987; Carlson, 1991; Carlson, 2015).

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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