Dundas Quarry Oral History Project

by Michael Brand and John Mills

Introduction

Situated on the Niagara Escarpment above Dundas, the Canada Crushed Stone quarry remained a prominent feature of the community's landscape for more than 140 years. Although a number of different corporations owned the operation throughout its existence, the backbone of the quarry was the local residents they employed. These included people already living in the community and immigrants who made Dundas their home. Young men often followed their fathers into the quarry's employ, creating intergenerational continuity that, for some families, spans almost the life of the quarry.

That part of the quarry located on the Dundas escarpment ceased operation in the mid-1970's (Marshall Macklin Monaghan n.d:B-6). The last prominent structure associated with the quarry, its screen house, was demolished in 1993 (McNamara 1999). Today little remains to acquaint visitors to Dundas with the quarry's existence, let alone its importance to the community's history. The forest covers most of the physical traces that remain on the slope, and a new residential development occupies the site of the former stockpile. Most hikers on this section of the Bruce Trail are likely unaware that they traverse the old incline rail bed as they make their way up the escarpment.

The quarry is an integral component of Dundas' industrial history, but more importantly it links so many past and present lives that it is a vital piece of the life of the community itself. While there are some material evidence and documentary records (Figure 1) for the quarry, the bulk of information remains in the memories of former quarry workers. The Dundas Quarry Oral History Project was initiated in July 2003 to collect and preserve these memories and stories. While this information will detail technical and operational aspects of the quarry, the project's focus is the people and their experiences.

A Brief History of the Quarry

Charles Farquhar began the first quarry operation on the escarpment above Dundas in 1847 (Woodhouse 1968, Marshall Macklin Monaghan n.d). He constructed lime kilns on the slope and employed approximately 15 men. Six years later the Great Western Railway laid track along the edge of the escarpment just below the kilns. The combination of the quarry and railway would become a significant factor in future quarry development, Farquhar, however, closed his quarry sometime around 1880.

During the first few years of the new century Charles Doolittle became interested in the old lime kilns sitting abandoned on the escarpment. In company with Horace Wilcox, Doolittle purchased property above the peak from James Somerville for an expanded quarry operation (Dundas Star 1905). The company purchased a crusher that was capable of crushing 120 tons of stone per hour. In 1903 the Grand Trunk Railway granted permission to construct a siding above the mainline, so crushed material could be loaded into rail cars via a chute near the old lime kiln (Dundas Star Journal 1905, 1970) Construction of the necessary infrastructure began the following year (Jackson 1950).

Figure 1. John Mills working with quarry records at the Dundas Museum.

The quarry opened in 1905 under the name Doolittle and Wilcox Crushed Stone Co. (Smith 1923, Woodhouse 1968). Additional property was purchased in 1910, and a screening plant, designed the J.C. Buckbee Company, Chicago, was built on the edge of the escarpment (Marshall Macklin Monaghan n.d:B-2). A Marion Model 90, locomotive-style steam shovel along with a steam haulage was put in the quarry feeding a 42" crusher (Concrete and Quarry 1937).

H.W. Wilcox died in 1912, and the company was reorganized as the Canada Crushed Stone Corporation, with Doolittle acting as both president and general manager (Smith 1923, Concrete and Quarry 1937, Kehoe 1987). Increased demand for ˝" and 1" stone lead to the installation of 72" Garfield rolls for secondary crushing the following year (Concrete and Quarry 1937). In 1920-21 a stockpile and railway siding were built at the Dundas plant below the Grand Trunk mainline (Concrete and Quarry 1937). A conveyor belt was built over the tracks to transfer material from the screen house to the stock pile (Marshall Macklin Monaghan n.d:B-4).

Stone quarried at the brow pit (Figure 2) was brought to the High Dock at the escarpment's edge, which housed the 42" crusher (J. Donato and J. Fama, pers. com. December 2003). Below the crusher were a smaller crusher and the screen house with a shipping siding connecting the screen house to the main rail line. The small crusher and screen house were also connected to the stockpile located below the Grand Trunk mainline by conveyor belts.

Figure 2. Canada Crushed Stone's Dundas quarry operation c. 1939. The brow quarry was no longer in use at this point. An electric train ran through The Cut to the new quarry near Highway 5 (Dundas Historical Society Museum, P2004.63, adapted and used with permission from the Dundas Museum).

On 1 April 1922 the crushing plant was shut down for repair and updating (Figure 3). Twenty-eight days later sparks from the repair work ignited a fire that razed the screen house, bins, conveyor galleries and the roll house to the ground (Smith 1937). Two days later work began clearing the debris in preparation for the construction of a building. Workmen had the new screen house up and running in 50 working days. During the 1930s a railway connected the brow quarry and screen house with the new quarry at Highway 5 (Dundas Star Journal 1970). Steam engines were used on the line until 1935, when an electric train was put in place.

Steetley of Canada bought the Dundas quarry operation in 1951 (Steetley n.d.). The following year a new plant was built at the quarry near Highway 5, which took over as the primary crushing facility (Dundas Star Journal 1970). During the late 1950s parts of the screen house above Dundas were modernized (Marshall Macklin Monaghan n.d:B-6). Use of the crushing plant on the escarpment's edge ended in 1975. The gantry that transported material from the crushing and screen house to the stockpile below the rail line was removed in 1986 (Kehoe 1987), and the screen house itself was demolished in 1993 (McNamara 1999).

Figure 3. Screen house prior to 1922 fire. Rail cars were moved through the lower portion of the screen house for loading and then taken down a siding, on the opposite side of the structure, to the Grand Trunk Railway mainline. The gantry extending from the screen house carried material over the mainline to the stockpile (Dundas Historical Society Museum, P2004.63, adapted and used with permission from the Dundas Museum).

Conclusion

While many of the technical and operational aspect of the Quarry's history are locally well known, the day to day stories and personal experiences of the Quarry workers remain untold. The Dundas Quarry Oral History Project's goal is to record these memories for future generations, and use them to explore the role this industry played in the community's development. To date we have initiated cataloguing the existing quarry records, and held preliminary interviews with a number of former quarry workers. Future plans include a museum display and book of collected stories.

References

Concrete and Quarry
	1937		The Canada Crushed Stone Corporation…Its History. Concrete and Quarry, April 1937.
Dundas Star Journal
	1905		A New Industry for Dundas. Dundas Star 16 March 2005.
	1970		Steetley Company History. Dundas Star Journal, 24 June 1970.
Kehoe, Peter
	1987		Sixty Years have passed since that fateful day at the Quarry. Dundas Star Journal, 29 April 1987.
McNamara, Kerry
	1999		Canada Crushed Stone Continuing to Grow. Weekend Focus, 20 February 1999.
Marshall Macklin Monaghan Ltd.
	n.d.		Final Report. Screen House and Crusher Feasibility Study. Report prepared for the Hamilton Regional Conservation Authority. Hamilton, Ontario.
Smith, Gordon
	1923		Erection of a 400-Ton Crushing Plant in 50 Working Days. Rock Products Vol. 26(16).
Steetley
	n.d.		Lime and Aggregates. A Major Natural Resource. Steetley, Dundas, Ontario.
Woodhouse, T. Roy
	1968		The History of the Town of Dundas. Part 3 of a Series. Dundas Historical Society, Dundas, ON.

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