Geology Resources – Iowa

• Geologic Map of Iowa (1907), Samuel Calvin, State Geologist, from the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Indiana State Geologist, Volume XVII, Iowa Geological Society, Des Moines, Iowa, 1906.

  The map reads as follows: “A Geological Map of Iowa showing commercial quarries, lime kilns and Portland Cement plants in Iowa”Map is dated 1907. (Size is 220KB.)

• Iowa State Geological Survey, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
• Stone-related publications offered by the Iowa State Geological Survey from A Guidebook to Mining In America:  Volume 2:  East (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and farther East), by John R. Park, Stonerose Publishing Co., Miami, Florida, April, 2000.
  • The Minerals of Iowa (ES-2, 88p.)
  • Iowa Geology, ” An annual non-technical publication, is probably the best of it’s kind.  Best of all, back issues are free!.Various other publications cover individual mineral resources.”
  • Iowa’s Minerals:  Their Occurrence, Origins, Industries, and Lore,” by Paul Garvin.
• Geological Society of Iowa
  • Geological Society of Iowa – Guidebooks.  Following are a few examples of the guidebooks that pertain to Iowa stone quarries:
    • Underburden – Overburden: An examination of Paleozoic and Quaternary Strata at the Conklin Quarry near Iowa City, 1984, GSI-41,  Bunker, B.J. and Hallberg, G.R., 81 pp.
    • An Excursion to the Historic Gilmore City Quarries, 1989, GSI-50, Woodson, F.J., 41 pp.  (This entry includes a PDF version with a section entitled:  “A Short History of the Quarry Industry at Gilmore City,” by Frederick J. Woodson, Department of Geology, University of Iowa.)
    • Virtual Field Trips
  • The Natural History of  Maquoketa Caves State Park, Jackson County, Iowa, GSI 2001 Fall Field Trip.  This field trip includes photographs of the Hurstville Lime Kilns and the Hurstville Quarry that provided the dolostone for the kilns.  The stone quarry was located directly behind the lime kilns on the east side of the North Fork of the Maquoketa River. (The link from which the above information was obtained is no longer available. You can order this booklet from the Iowa Geological Survey – List of Publications.
    <http://www.igsb.uiowa.edu/gsi/fall.01_trip/ftfall.htm>
• Iowa State Minerals Information (USGS)

• A Location Guide for Rockhounds, Collected by Robert C. Beste, PG, St. Louis, Missouri: Hobbitt Press, 2nd ed., December 1996, 148 pp. (Includes chapters on “Mineral Locations by State,” “Appendix and Glossary,” and “Bibliography.”)
• Annotated Bibliography of Iowa Geology and Mining, by Charles Rollin Keyes, Iowa Geological Survey, 1913.
• Calvin Geological Photographs – Iowa, Iowa Digital.
• “Geography of Iowa” section of Wikipedia.
• Geological Map of Iowa – “Geological Map of Iowa,” The Annals of Iowa 1, by Charles R. Keyes, 1894, pp. 294-298.
• Geologic Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Iowa, U. S. Department of Agriculture.
• Geologic Sources of Historic Stone Architecture in Iowa, by Brian J. Witzke.  Adapted from Iowa Geology 1996, No. 21, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
• Geological Maps of Iowa Counties – Maps from the Annual Reports of the Iowa Geological Survey, 1894-1941, University of Alabama.
• Geology of Iowa:  Iowa’s Earth History Shaped by Ice, Wind, Rivers, and Ancient Seas, by Jean Cutler Prior. Adapted from Iowa Geology 1997, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
• Geology of the Loess Hills, Iowa (USGS)
• Geoscience in Your State: Iowa, AGI – American Geosciences Institute.
• Iowa geologic map data, U. S. Geological Survey.
• Iowa Limestone Producers Association
• “Iowa’s Geological History Reevaluated Webinar,” YouTube video by Trees Forever, October 27, 2021.
• Iowa Geology – Chapter V.  “Annotated bibliography of Iowa Geology” – Du-Na
• Iowa Geology, 1999, No. 24, Jean Cutler Prior, Editor, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Geological Survey.
• Iowa’s Geology, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
• “Lithograph City – Limestone,” by Bill J. Bunker.  Adapted from Iowa Geology 1991, No. 16, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  This site includes photographs of the Lewis Quarry and the Gable Quarry, both southwest of Osage, Mitchell County, Iowa. (The link from which this publication was obtained is no longer available.)
  < http://www.igsb.aruiowa.edu/browse/lithcity/lithcity.htm>
• Landforms and Geology, Iowa’s Nature Series, Iowa State University, 2021.
• List of YouTube videos about Iowa Geology.

• Lithographic City Formation (Limestone) – Upper Cedar Valley Stratigraphy, North-Central Iowa, Lithoraphic City Formation, by Bill J. Bunker, Brian J. Witzke, and Jed Day, Geological Society of Iowa Guidebook 44, April 27, 1986.

• Minerals of Iowa, by Jean Cutler Prior – Adapted from Iowa Geology 1994, No. 19, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
• Mr. Reuter’s Online Classroom.
• National Geologic Map Database, presented by the United States Geologic Survey.
• Sketch of The Geology of Iowa, State of Iowa, 1926, Issued by the Iowa Geological Survey.  (booklet)
• U. S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet on Iowa
• Chalk Cliff – Chalk Cliff on the Sioux river, Plymouth County, Plate LXI.   (From Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. XVII, Fifteenth Annual Report of the Iowa State Geologist, 1906.)

  Chalk Cliff on the Sioux river, Plymouth County.

• Forbes Limestone – Exposure of the Forbes limestone near Hawleyville, Page County, Fig. 44.   (From Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. XVII, Fifteenth Annual Report of the Iowa State Geologist, 1906.)

  Exposure of the Forbes limestone near Hawleyville, Page County.

The Iowa Stone Industry

• 1882 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry in 1882 (transcription), Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1882, J. S. Powell, Director, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1883. Excerpts from the chapters on 1) “Structural Materials” and 2) “The Useful Minerals of the United States.”
• 1883 and 1884 Stone and Building Industry, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Years 1883 and 1884, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1885.
• 1885 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry in 1885 (transcription), Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1885, David T. Day, Geologist, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1887. Excerpt from the chapter on “Structural Materials,” by H. S. Sproull.
• 1886 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1886 (transcription), Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1886, David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining Statistics and Technology, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1887.  Excerpts from the chapter on “Structural Materials,” by William C. Day.
• 1887 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1887, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1887, J. W. Powell, Director, David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining Statistics and Technology, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1888
• 1888 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1888, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1888, J. W. Powell, Director, David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining Statistics and Technology, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1890
• 1889 and 1890 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1889, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1889 and 1890, J. W. Powell, Director, David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining Statistics and Technology, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1892
• 1891 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1891, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1891, J. W. Powell, Director David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining Statistics and Technology, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1893
• 1892 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1892, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1892, J. W. Powell, Director, David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining Statistics and Technology, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1893
• 1893 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1893, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1893, J. W. Powell, Director, David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining Statistics and Technology, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1894
• 1894 – Iowa Stone and Building Industry in 1894 (transcription), Excerpts from the Sixteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part IV.-Mineral Resources of the United States, 1894, Nonmetallic Products.  Chapter on “Stone,” by William C. Day.
• 1894 – Notes of Iowa Building Stones (transcription), by H. Foster Bain from the Sixteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part IV.-Mineral Resources of the United States, 1894, Nonmetallic Products.  Chapter on “Stone,” by William C. Day.
• 1895 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1895, Excerpts from Seventeenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part III. Mineral Resources of the United States, 1895, Nonmetallic Products, Except Coal. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896.
• 1895-1938 – “A Summary of Mineral Production in Iowa 1895-1938,” by H. Garland Hershey.
• 1896 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1896, Excerpts from Eighteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part V. Mineral Resources of the United States, 1896, Nonmetallic Products, Except Coal. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1897.
• 1897 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1897, Excerpts from Nineteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part V. Mineral Resources of the United States, 1896, Nonmetallic Products, Except Coal. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1898.
• 1898 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1898, Excerpts from Twentieth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part VI. Mineral Resources of the United States, 1898, Nonmetallic Products, Except Coal and Coke. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899.
• 1898 – Mineral Production of Iowa in 1898, by Samuel W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1899 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1899, Excerpts from Twenty-first Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, Part VI. Mineral Resources of the United States, 1899, Nonmetallic Products, Except Coal and Coke. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1901.
• 1899 – Mineral Production of Iowa in 1899, by S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1900 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1900, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1900, Charles D. Walcott, Director, David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining and Mineral Resources, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1901.
• 1900 – Mineral Production of Iowa in 1900, by S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1901 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1901, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1901, Charles D. Walcott, Director, David T. Day, Chief of Division of Mining and Mineral Resources, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1902
• 1901 – Mineral Production of Iowa in 1901, by S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1902 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1902, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1902, Charles D. Walcott, Director, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1904.
• 1902 – Mineral Production of Iowa in 1902, by S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1903 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1903, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1903, Charles D. Walcott, Director Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1904.
• 1904 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1904, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1904, Charles D. Walcott, Director, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1905.
• 1904 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1904, by S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1904 – Cement and Cement Materials of Iowa, by Edwin C. Eckel, H. F. Bain, Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report: Vol. 15, 1904, pp. 33-124.
• 1905 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1905, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1905, Charles D. Walcott, Director, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1906.
• 1905 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1905, by  S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1906 – Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. XVII, Annual Report, 1906 (This link is not yet available.  Please check back in the future.  When it is available, you will use this link to read the portion of the book that pertains to quarries from, “Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. XVII, Annual Report,” 1906, which includes geology, history, quarry information. The photographs from this book have been presented in the “Quarries & Quarry Links, Photographs and Articles” of the Iowa section of the web site.)
  

  “In the early days of Iowa, the pioneers used local stone in several of the early forts.  In 1840 stone was used in the buildings at Fort Atkinson in Wineshiek County and also for foundations for houses and barns.  Native stone was also used in public buildings., street curbing, gutters, paving blocks, and ballast for the railroads.”Lime was quarried early on to be used in cement and mortar.  Eventually, this industry disappeared from Iowa.

  “Once Portland Cement was widely used, the need for great quantities of quarried stone from Iowa for use in buildings diminished.  “Then plants for manufacture of Portland cement came to Iowa, and presently were quarrying enormous tonnages of limestone and shale from locations in the vicinity of Winterset, at Mason City, and at Buffalo.””By 1957 only a few quarries were still producing building stone.

  “Most of the quarries in Iowa were concentrated in the eastern portion of the state.  By 1957 most of the quarries had been abandoned, although since then some have reopened.  Beds of limestone have been quarried in Allamakee, Winneshiek, and Dubuque counties. In 1957 St. Peter sandstone was being mined in Clayton County. “The Silurian variety of limestone can be found in the eastern counties of Iowa in Jones, Delaware, Jackson, Cedar, Clinton, and Scott counties.  Large quantities of limestone were quarried from these areas, especially the quarries in Jones County.  At Anamosa penitentiary personnel quarried stone to be used in buildings, walls and terraces.  This stone was also used in Botan Hall and Morrill Hall at Iowa State College.  This is the ‘Anamosa stone.’  In 1957 this stone was still being quarried for use as crushed stone.”

• 1906 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1906, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States – Calendar Year 1906, George Otis Smith, Director, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1907.
• 1906 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1906, by S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1906 – Geology of Quarry Products, by S. W. Beyer, Ira A. Williams, and Samuel Calvin, Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report, by S. W. Beyer Ira A. Williams Samuel Calvin, Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report: Vol. 17, 1906, pp. 185-526.
• 1907 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1907, Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1907, Part II.  Nonmetallic Products, George Otis Smith, Director, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey,  Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1908.
• 1907 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1907, by S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1908 – The Iowa Stone and Building Industry, 1908 (transcription), Excerpts from Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1908, Part II – Nonmetallic Products, Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1909. Excerpts from the book are from the chapter on “Stone,” by A. T. Coons.
• 1908 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1908, by S. W. Beyer, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1909 & 1910 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1909 and 1910, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1912 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1911 and 1912, by George F. Kay, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1913 – The Road and Concrete Materials of Iowa, Pt. 1, by S. W. Beyer and H. F. Wright, Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report: Vol. 24, 1913, pp. 33-358.
• 1913-1914 – Mineral Production in Iowa for 1913 and 1914, by George F. Kay, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1915 – Mineral Production in Iowa for 1915, by George F. Kay, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1916 – Mineral Production in Iowa for 1916, by George F. Kay, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1917-1918 – Mineral Production in Iowa for 1917 and 1918, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1919-1920 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1919 and 1920, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1921-1922 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1921 and 1922, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1923-1924 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1923 and 1924, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1925 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1925, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1926 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1926, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1927 – Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the State Geologist, Vol. 33, 1927, p. 5-8, by George F. Kay, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1927 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1927, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1928 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1928 and 1929, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1929 – Thirty-Eighth Annual Report of the State Geologist, by George F. Kay, Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report, Vol. 35, 1929, pp. 5-14.
• 1930, 1931, & 1932 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1930, 1931 and 1932, by James H. Lees, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1933-1938 – Mineral Production in Iowa for the years 1933-1938, by H. Garland Hershey, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1895-1938 – A Summary of Mineral Production in Iowa 1895-1938, by H. Garland Hershey, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1939-1940 – Mineral Production in Iowa in 1939 and 1940, by H. Garland Hershey, Iowa Geological Survey.
• 1939 – Forty-Third, Forty-Fourth, Forty-Fifth, Forty-Sixth, Forty-Seventh & Forty-Eighth Annual Reports of the State Geologist, by Arthur C. Trowbridge, Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report: Vol. 37, 1939, pp. vii-xiv.
• 1941 – Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Annual Reports of the State Geologist, by Arthur C. Trowbridge, Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report: Vol. 38, 1941, pp. vii-xii.
• 1957 – The Iowa Stone Industry, 1957, Excerpts from The Palimpsest: Quarrying in Iowa, by Charles S. Gwynne and William J. Petersen, published monthly by the State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, May 1957.
• 1967 – Stone Industry in Iowa – (From Mining and Mineral Operations in the United States: A Visitor’s Guide, by Staff, Bureau of Mines, Area Mineral Resource Offices, U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, 1967, pp. 28.)
  

  “Although Iowa is renowned as an agricultural State, its production of mineral commodities in 1964 was valued at more than $100 million. Construction materials (cement, stone, sand, gravel, and gypsum) make up most of the mineral output of the state, but some fossil fuels (coal and petroleum) also are produced.”

• 1994 through present-day – The Mineral Industry of Iowa – United States Geological Survey  (1994 through present-day)
• Geological Map of Iowa, 1907 (Indicates quarry locations) (From Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. XVII, Fifteenth Annual Report of the Iowa State Geologist, 1906.)

  The map reads as follows: “A Geological Map of Iowa showing commercial quarries, lime kilns and Portland Cement plants in Iowa” Map is dated 1907. (Size is 220KB.)

• Anamosa Limestone, on Wikipedia
• Calvin Photographic Collection from Calvin’s Scrapbook, presented by the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.  These photographs, among many others, were taken by Samuel Calvin, Professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Iowa (1873-1911) and State Geologist.
  • List of the quarries available on “Calvin’s Scrapbook” from the photographic collection of Professor Samuel Calvin.  The list of quarries mentioned in the scrapbook is used with the permission of the Department of Geoscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
• Flowers of the Iowa Seas – Minerals, the State Historical Society of Iowa.  This site includes photographs and origin of Iowa minerals.
• Geologic Sources of Historic Stone Architecture in Iowa, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
• Iowa – A Century of Change:  1800 to 1900. (The link from which the following information was obtained is no longer available.)
  < http://www.igsb.uiowa.edu/portrait/3change/change.htm>

• As the Iowa developed, people learned that good building material could be obtained from Iowa’s bedrock.  Iowa limestone was used to build the Old Capitol in the territorial capital of Iowa City in 1849, and in 1872 limestone was used in the construction of the Iowa Men’s Reformatory in Anamosa.  Many of the old stone buildings have become landmarks.  The building-stone quarries were concentrated in eastern Iowa.  Also, a number of buildings were constructed from Sioux Quartzite obtained from an exposed bedrock at the far northwest tip of Iowa.  

• Iowa – Mineral Resource Facts, by Robert M. McKay and presented by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  Limestone and Dolostone, produced in Dubuque, Jackson, and Jones counties, were used as Dimension stone (flagging, veneer, and quarry blocks).  Quarries in the Stone City area in Jones County began producing dimension stone and have continued since the 1880s.  This stone is called Anamosa Stone, and it is marketed throughout the midwest and as far as California. (The link to this document is no longer available, although you can read the document on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.)
  <http://www.igsb.uiowa.edu/browse/MineralResourcesFacts.htm>
• 1886 – Iowa Building Stone (Part 1)  (August 1886)  The Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 18, Issue 8, August 1886, pg. 180. (Article in digital images viewed at American Memory, Library of Congress – slow to load.)
• 1886 – Iowa Building Stone  (Part 2)  (September 1886)  The Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 18, Issue 9, September 1886, pg. 202. (Article in digital images viewed at American Memory, Library of Congress – slow to load.)
• Iowa’s Cement Industry, by Robert M. McKay and presented by Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
• Iowa Limestone Producers Association Inc. – ILPA, Des Moines, Iowa  (present-day company)  This site has a short history on Iowa’s stone industry and present-day quarries.
• Iowa Marble and Granite Dealers’ Association (1895) The following information is from The Monumental News, August, 1895, Vol. 7, No. 8, Chicago, Illinois, pp. 499.
  

  “President: W. C. Spaulding, Fairfield.

  Secretary and Treasurer: W. W. Woods, Marshalltown.”

• Landscape Features of Iowa, by Jean Cutler Prior, adapted from Iowa Geology 1995, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, presented by Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  (Scroll down to the last photograph – 1800s-era quarry)  Outcrops at Gitchie Manitou State Preserve in Lyon County is the location of the oldest bedrock formation visible anywhere in Iowa.  The Sioux Quartzite has a distinctive reddish color and can be seen “…along the edges of ‘Jasper Pool,’ an 1800’s-era quarry on the preserve….”
• Listing of Mineral Producers and Mineral Production Sites in Iowa
• Mineral Production in Iowa, by Robert M. McKay and presented by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Energy and Geological Services Division, Geological Survey Bureau.  (The following quote is used with the permission.)

• “Stone:  Many of Iowa’s 19th-century bridges and buildings were built of limestone in towns along major rivers, where rock exposures were common. The growth of railroads, the need for improved highways, and the increased use of ag-lime required sources of crushed stone. Prominent production districts included Cedar, Jones, Des Moines, Marshall, Lee, Madison, Jackson, and Scott counties. By 1982 the value of crushed stone surpassed cement and became the leading mineral commodity, accounting for 41% of the state’s total mineral value. By 1990 there were 460 registered quarry sites in Iowa.”  (This site includes a large photograph of the Bealer Quarries in Cedar County circa 1900.)

• Iowa Quarries search results on the Iowa Digital Library, Iowa University Libraries.
• “Iowa’s Bedrock,” Explore Iowa Geology, The Iowa Geoscience Education Information Network, 2020.
• Mineral Resource Facts, by Robert M. McKay.
• Native Stone from Iowa, by Lisa Van Liefde, February 8, 2012, Architectural Stone, Green-Sustainable, Monarch Stone.
• Natural Resource Mapping of Linn County, by Robert D. Libra, adapted from Iowa Geology 1996, No. 21, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  (This publication is no longer available at the original link, although it is available on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.)
• Rock Resources of Iowa, by George F. Kay, Iowa Geological Survey.
• Underground Limestone Mining, by Robert M. McKay and Michael J. Bounk  (Adapted from Iowa Geology 1987, No. 12, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.) (This article includes a photograph of an underground limestone quarry.)

Printed, Online, & Video Sources

Google Book Search: You can use Google Book Search to search for specific subjects in thousands of books available through the Google Book Search – both books under copyright and in the public domain. Hundreds of books are added regularly, so check back if you do not find books on the subject for which you are seeking information. Some of the books published prior to 1923 are available in their entirety and can be downloaded to you computer for your personal use.

• • “Annals of Iowa – The Great Pipestone Quarry” (in Minnesota), Scientific American, Vol. XX, No. 9, February 27, 1869, pp. 132)
  • Annotated Bibliography of Iowa Geology and Mining, by Charles Rollin Keyes, Iowa Geological Survey, 1913.
  • “Detail Carving for the Iowa’s Soldiers’ Monument,” presented in Charles H. More & Co. advertisements in 1894, Barre, Vermont.  Published in three parts in The Monumental News, July 1894, August 1894, & September 1894

Model of the top capital on the Iowa State Soldiers’ Monument	Reproduction from the model of the “more or less conventional style of carving shown on the original plans have been changed by the eminent artist Carl Rohlsmith….” (on the Iowa State Soldiers’ Monument)

Model of the columns of the Iowa State Soldiers’ Monument	Section of pediment design (on the Iowa State Soldiers’ Monument)

• Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, Embracing Idaho and Wyoming, Being a report of progress of the exploration for the year 1877, by F. V. Hayden, United States Geologist, United States Geological Survey, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1879.
• Geologic Sources of Historic Stone Architecture in Iowa, Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
• A Guidebook to Mining In America:  Volume 2:  East (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and farther East), by John R. Park, Stonerose Publishing Co., Miami, Florida, April, 2000,” available at Stonerose Publishing Company.
• Iowa – Geological Survey, Vol. XVII, Annual Report, 1906 With Accompanying Papers. Published for Iowa Geological Survey, Des Moines, Iowa: 1907. Samuel, Calvin, Ph. D., State Geologist. (Chapter on Mineral Production in Iowa for 1906, by S. W. Beyer.)
• Iowa Geology, 1999, No. 24, Jean Cutler Prior, Editor, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Geological Survey.
• “Iowa State Penitentiary Prison Cemetery, Fort Madison, Lee County, Iowa,” by Darie M. Hind Posz, in Association for Gravestone Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 3, Summer, 2007, pp. 6-8.
• A Location Guide for Rockhounds, Collected by Robert C. Beste, PG, St. Louis, Missouri: Hobbitt Press, 2nd ed., December 1996, 148 pp. (Includes chapters on “Mineral Locations by State,” “Appendix and Glossary,” and “Bibliography.”)
• “Nineteenth Century Mortuary Styles,” by Jason Holm.
• “Notes on Iowa Building Stones,” by H. F. Baine, in Sixteenth Annual Report, Part 4, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C., Government Printing Office, 1895, pp. 500-503.
• The Palimpsest: Quarrying in Iowa, by Charles S. Gwynne and William J. Petersen, published monthly by the State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, May 1957.
• Physical Properties of Typical American Rocks, by John H. Griffith, publisher: Ames, Iowa., Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 1937.
• “Portland Cement Materials Near Dubuque, Iowa,” by Ernest F. Burchard, Contributions to Economic Geology, Bulletin 315, United States Geological Survey, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907, pp. 225-231. (This book is available on Google Book Search – Full View Books for reading or downloading to your computer.)
• “The Remarkable Crosses of Charles Andera,” by Loren N. Horton, in Markers XIV, Association for Gravestone Studies, 1997. (Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, USA)
• Sketch of The Geology of Iowa, State of Iowa, 1926, Issued by the Iowa Geological Survey.  (booklet)
• Surficial Geologic Map of The Greater Omaha Area, Nebraska and Iowa, by Ralph R. Shroba, Theodore R. Brandt, and Jeffrey C. Blossom, Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2391, U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey. [PDF]
• The Technology of Marble Quarrying, U. S. Bureau of Mines Bulletin 106, by Oliver Bowles, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1916.
• “Tributes in Stone and Lapidary Lapses: Commemorating Black People in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century America,” by Angelika Krüger-Kahloula, in Markers VI: pp. 32-100, Association for Gravestone Studies. (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, USA)

Stone Carvers, Stone Cutters, etc., in Iowa

• Charles Andera – “The Remarkable Crosses of Charles Andera,” by Loren N. Horton, in Markers XIV, Association for Gravestone Studies, 1997. (Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, USA)
• Ben Mayer’s Custom Stone Carving in Winterset, Iowa.