Chemstone Corporation              1955 - 1962

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Eastern operations continued under Chemstone, but the supply of fluxstone was limited.

On February 1, 1955 the Minerals and Chemicals Corporation of America took over remaining possessions of the KIL&T Company. The corporation created a division to manage the Marblehead operation and called it the Chemstone Corporation.               During this time the demise of KIL&T was the vanishing supply of fluxstone on the property.  According to documents, Chemstone's vision was that there was enough fluxstone to quarry for another 10 years.  This soon was found not to be the case.

Crusher "D" was starting to show lack on maintenance under Chemstone in this 1955 picture.

Chemstone resumed quarrying at the most eastern location of the property where KIL&T left off.  This area spread from the old Clemons quarry to just north of present Bay Point Condos.  The working face revealed very good stone for fluxing capabilities.  Some of the most interesting aspects in this area was the presence of glacial grooves curved in the flat surface area.  Most of these were quarried but one clear groove is still present on the property, just west of Lake Breeze Circle.  Not only was fluxstone limited for Chemstone, but also was customers to buy stone.  Basically the Corporation held onto what it had and did not look to expand.  As for the newly diesel powered L&M Railroad, Chemstone too kept that finacially supported early on.  Railroad shipments began to drop around 1957, to the point where future financial problems may occur.

This new Haulpak truck was purchased to replace rail transport to the loading dock.

Also the hours of operation in the quarry were cut and night operations were considered downtime then production.  Around 1960 quarry operations scrambled to different parts of the property to try and "clean up"  as much fluxstone as possible.  Some operations even went as far as the Hartshorn Road area which already had a working face from the 1920's and 30's.  Another temporary solution to the shortfall was the amount of stone under piles of overburden.         Chemstone looked into the possibility of clearing this overburden but would be a costly venture.  A total was never estimated but with present research shows that another 2 years of fluxstone  quarrying remain on the property.   Other problems began to face the corporation in the late 1950's.       One was the maintenance of equipment, buildings, and railroad facilities.  Another problem faced was the L&M, which was beginning to see financial problems based on the quarry.  To relieve some strain on the railroad, Chemstone decided to eliminate rail transport to the loading dock.  This investment cost Chemstone to purchase 50 ton Euclid rear dump trucks.  The trucks then transported finished products from Crusher "D" to the concrete bins at the dock.   Around 1962 all fluxstone possible to quarry was finished.  Chemstone Corporation was then dissolved after the quarry was leased by the Standard Slag Company.

A working quarry face or ledge in this photo shows the fluxstone layer being drilled for blasting.