~This cache is placed with the permission of the East
Longmeadow Conservation Comission.~
Pine Quarry is one of the many older
quarries located in the Connecticut Valley
area. Most of the quarried stone was
sandstone. The stone was called Redstone or
Brownstone. The stone was obtained during the
Triassic formation of the Connecticut Valley of
Connecticut and Massachusetts. The colors
varried within one mile of three
quarries with three distint shades. The Kibbe
stone was a brick-red with a fine grain. The
stone was used on many buildings throughout the
Northeast. Examples -- East Longmeadow Town Hall Building;
Old Chapel Clock Tower, University of Massachsetts,
Amherst, Massachusetts; Academy of Design, Brooklyn,
N. Y.; Wesleyan University Buildings, Middletown, Conn.;
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, New York city;
Court House and Post Office, Rochester, N. Y.;
lower stories of Waldorf-Astoria Hotel,
New York City; Marshall-Field Building, Chicago, Ill.
(Kibbe sandstone above basement); Trinity Church,
Boston, Mass.; Library and Stock Building,
Princeton University, Princeton, N. J.;
numerous private residences in Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, and other eastern cities.
It was often used as a grave stone in cemeteries,
usually outlasting the harder and more
expensive marble stones. There were 50 or more
quarries in operation during the 1800's
dropping off to twelve by 1894.
Pine Quarry is located on conservation land
surrounded by private land owners
(please no bushwacking required or allowed) and can
be easily accessed off Old Farm Road & High
Meadow Circle (Park at: 42 02.852'N, 72 29.886'W).
The trail head is not established but is marked with
red flagging tape from the tree branches.
Follow the perennial stream keeping to the
right until a large fallen tree. The
trail is well used at this point and will lead you to the
cache. Once at the quarry, there are
many trails to the cache and climbing the high
quarry walls is not needed. Watch out for the edges
on the trail around parts of the quarry. Due
to the recent m.i.a. cache, the cache is now hidden off the
trail on higher ground. The original
cache contents included dooR stop butoiRs,
fouR Red shaRpies, RubbeR
fingeR tips, 'will Return' sign, Red
Radio Shack Replacement spRay tubes,
Round stic pens and a Red log book. This is a themed
cache of the letter 'R'.
"The second part of this cache will lead you to a
rare find. Coordinates are found inside the
Red log book. While looking around the
quarry, we were surprised to find a
pair of Reproba pennae. This
rare pair of tiny red bats with
silver highlights are the only known pair in
Massachusetts (another pair of Red bats
are found in captivity in Orange, Connecicut). If
you're lucky, you may see the bats hanging from a
branch or root within the quarry walls.
Bring a flashlight (a must have) to shine in the dark
spots. If you're patient, you can get a distant
picture of them flying in and out from the base of the wall
near the tree that is fused into the redstone.
This area has been marked with red flagging tape for
ease of narrowing in on the red bats
before Winter settles in…"