Granite, a good foundation for your Eco-Vacation in Maine.

Pieces of Maine’s foundation stone have found their way right into your vacation house in Maine   One of the very first difference in houses I found when moving to Maine was the use of granite blocks in old foundations. Curbs of stone are unique to this area where granite is abundant. What’s with all those rocks just hanging out in the woodlands? A lot of it is granite.

Granite is an interesting rock. There are three kinds of granite found on MDI island. It’s fun to find them and make a adventure out of it.

There is granite of Southwest Harbor. It is a light-colored rock, fine-grained, light gray commonly with a tan or pinkish hue. Outcrops are visible along the shore at Southwest Harbor and near West Tremont. Rock similar to Southwest Harbor granite makes up the southern end of Schoodic Peninsula and is exposed at Schoodic Point.

Granite of Cadillac Mountain is pink to greenish-gray and coarse-grained. You can see grains of translucent, gray, glassy looking quarts and pink or gray feldspar. The black mineral is hornblende. The stone forms the bald top of the mountain and much of the walking trail around the top rim is on and around that pink granite.

The granite of Somesville (above) is  fine to medium grained and pink and gray – which looks similar to Cadillac Mountain granite at first glance, but has smaller grains and a different type of feldspar. Pink or cream colored K-feldspar and light gray plagioclase will be found. The Hall Quarry supplied large quantities of building stone to many major cities with Somesville granite. You can see this stone used around seal cove as a protection against beach erosion from storms and very high tides which come four of times a year.

Deer Isle granite is the one you’ll find in our kitchen. Its pink, gray and white with black accents. It was the source of granite for New York’s major bridges, Rockefeller Center and the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. There are four quarry sites in and around Stonington, which was renamed for the stone industry that took over this town in the late 1800′s, Their harbor is lined with huge blocks of granite, exposed at low tide all along the town docks there. A great day side trip can be made to the only old quarry site on the main island of Deer Isle, now a nature conservancy natural area. You can walk in the quarry, and bring a lunch along for a great harbor view.

Where is the Settlement Quarry?
Take Route 15 and bear left at Deer Isle village. Keep heading toward Stonington until you see Ron’s Auto Repair on left. This is the Oceanville Road. Continue about a mile until you see the granite sign on your right.

I have always wanted to know more about the Quarry along the Penobscot River around Franklin, Maine.   Quarries along water were popular when transportation was an issue.   Boats made transporting so much easier with the heavy stone. It’ll be my next geological mystery to uncover in future posts. Still interested in granite? Visit the granite museum in Northeast Harbor. It’s closed for the winter right now but should open up again in June sometime. Stay tuned for a future post about granite sculpture project that has been going on around here for a few years now.

Reference: The Geology of Mount Desert Island, A visitor’s guide. Maine Geological Survey, Department of Conservation.

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