September 19, 2015.
With the nice weather of the past couple of weeks, considerable progress has been made in several crucial areas. First, the walking path around both quarries is now completed with the exception of several areas of stone steps still needed. Second, the new area set aside for equipment storage has been cleaned out in preparation for the commencement of building there. Third, the parking lot has been slightly reengineered and spaces provided for about 12 cars and a bus.
Parking lot driveway shaping up.
Fourth, the dressed stone path between the Quonset hut (administration building) and the viewing platform has been finished.
Dressed stone path from admin building to overlook.
On Saturday the 19th, we hosted a field trip from some geology students at James Madison University who were interested in studying the composition of our soapstone rocks. They pointed out some odd inclusions (small-scale) in one of the sitting rocks at the viewing platform. It looks like a bit of turquoise similar to that found in our tree plantations on Ball Mountain. Always something interesting to learn from field trips.
JMU geology field trip.
