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Show dREAMSTIME PHOTOGRAPH WINTER 2013 UHQ pp 4-90_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 12/5/12 9:38 AM Page 46 A Majestic Building Stone: Sanpete Oolite Limestone By WILLIAM T. PARRy L ong before gold, silver, and copper mines caught the headlines in early Utah newspapers, another treasure was being quarried from the earth in the Sanpete Valley. Oolite limestone from Sanpete County was the building stone chosen for many private and public structures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A great variety of rocks suitable for building were formed during the complex geological history of Utah. The building stone varieties exposed in the mountains near the early settlements include onyx marble from Nephi, sandstone from The Hearst Castle (Casa Grande). William T. Parry is Emeritus Professor of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah. 46 |
