This beautiful, multicolored sandstone is found only on the
Cumberland Plateau and is most widely referred to as "Crab Orchard
Stone". Over the past 70 years, both national and international
demand for this rugged, and beautiful sandstone can only be found
within a fifty mile radius of the area and no where else in the
world The outstanding characteristics of Crab Orchard Stone are its
hardness and colorful appearance. Basic sandstone, consists of
quartz grains bound by silica, iron oxide, calcium carbonate, or a
combination of the three. Crab Orchard Stone has an unusually high
quantity of silica which creates a much harder, weather resistant
variety of sandstone. Crab Orchard Stone also has distinct
colorings not found in other sandstone. Shadings of tan, buff,
blue-gray and pink are found in this stone. These colors are
created by the minerals, iron, titaneaum and magnesium. The yellow
and brown swirls and ripples are caused by natural iron stains and
weathering.
Modern technology has helped make the stone more marketable. With
improved equipment, workers can harvest layers of stone that in the
past could not be reached.
The coordinates at the top of the page are to
the entrance to a live working quarry site, please park on
either side of the entrance and walk down into the strip
mining area. As seen the picture, the stone is in layers shown
by the red arrows
Permission has been given by the owners to do so.
Crab Orchard Stone in Use: In Cumberland County, you can see this
stone in use in the hundreds of "Homestead Houses" that were built
during the depression as part of the New Deal. The historic
"Homestead Tower", the showplace of the New Deal.
Another example of the beauty of this stone is the dam at the
Cumberland Mountain State Park.
It can be found in several government and commercial building
throughout the area, including Homestead and Crab Orchard Schools,
The Greater Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce, Crossville
Church of Christ, Crossville's old post office and jail, First
National Bank, and Cumberland County High School. In 1991, Crab
Orchard Stone was used for renovations at the vice presidential
residence in Washington D.C. Other notable places where this stone
has been used include: The parking lots at Rockefeller Center in
New York; Detroit's United Auto Workers headquarters; Atlanta's
Cathedral of St. Philip; Washington's Internal Revenue Service
Building; the Church of Heavenly Rest in New York; the Nintendo
office building in Honolulu; and the courts and walks around
President Franklin Roosevelt's pool in Hyde Park, and Elvis
Presley's pool at Graceland. Former Tennessee Governor Ned
McWherter is using it in his new home in Paris, Tennessee.
To claim this earthcache, (1) email me with number of rock
layers in a 12 inch vertical section of this rock face and (2) post
a photo of yourself or your group at N35 54.691 W84 54.611 in front
of the rock cut along with your log.