In 1902, The Cranberry Furnace Company opened this Quarry to provide lime for the Johnson City Iron Foundry. The Quarry featured a crusher and a 924' railroad siding to load the crushed lime onto the ET&WNC train to Johnson City.
The Quarry is located where three shallow sea sedimentary formations overlie each other. When these sediments were deposited, 500 million years ago, there was life in the oceans, but no life not even plants on land. The quarry is located at the top of a formation called the honaker Dolomite. The dolomite extends NE along the trail all the way to elizabethton. THe dolomite is overlain by the Clay rich Nolichucky Shale. You can see shale chips and limestone ribbons in the cutting walls in the first 100 yards NW of the Quarry. The shale is overlain by the knox group group limestone which weathers to an orange soil. You can see outcrops of the Knox group at the Milligan Depot and all along the trail to the trailhead where it is replaced by the Nolichucky Shale and the Honaker Dolomite.
Also at the site of the quarry you will see High grade magnetite iron ore. Magnetite is named for its strong natural magnetism. A "bloomery" or iron smelter, was built at Cranberry in 1820 to process the ore and supply iron to the confederacy during the Civil war. In 1875 Ario Pardee, formed the Cranberry Iron and Coal company to bring iron ore 34 miles from the Cranberry Mine to the Cranberry Furnace in Johnson City for smelting. The metallic ore was mined from 840,000,000 year old metamoprphic rock called epidote Gneiss. Between 1882 and 1920 over 1,250,000,000 tons of iron ore was taken from the cranberry mine.
The iron ore is comprised of banded epidote, amphibole, quartz, and magnetite. The rocks at the display were recovered from buffalo creek. They were likely considered low grade and were used to protect the pilings of the original bridge.
To claim this earth cache please email me the answers to the following questions:
1. Describe the minerals you see on display .
2. If you brought a magnet with you, when placed near the ore does it have a reaction?
3. While not required feel free to post of picture of yourself or group at the earthcache