WHAT IS THAT BIG BUILDING AT THE STATE PARK?
It was the North Side quarry crusher, part of the extensive quarry operation of the Kelleys Island Lime & Transport Co.
This was the North Side crusher building back in the day. The small building on the left was the Locomotive House, the large building on the right was the crusher building.
Work actually stated in 2018 when the State Park cleared the trees and brush from around this structure, revealing it for the first time in many years. The right side of the building was the steam plant that powered the entire operation. The left side was the crusher building and stone storage bins. Railroad cars would back up through a hole in the upper part of the building and tip stone down into the crusher, which was located in the corner where the two structures meet.
Conveyor belts would carry the crushed stone across the top of the concrete structure and dump it into the bins. RR cars backed up underneath (in the ‘tunnel’) where the stone would drop into the cars.
You can still see the concrete pads for the trestle in the grass, now mostly grown over by wildflowers.
Behind the two smoke stac
ks on the roof, there is a small cupola. That unit was removed and is now a storage shed near the large building.
The train would carry the stone cars out onto the dock and dump it into the bins on the dock. These were called pocket docks. There were chutes that would be lowered to allow the stone to tumble onto the boats. If the stone should get stuck in the chutes, they would send a quarry worker in with a sledgehammer or a small charge of black powder or dynamite to dislodge the blockage.
This is the building today.
At one time, there was an extensive structure right on the hill overlooking the State Park Beach for the burning of limestone. these were called the Lime Kilns.