Rock of Ages Corporation is a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

ing and finishing

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

located in Graniteville,

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

. It was founded in 1885. The company employs around 230 people, and made a profit of around $800,000 in 2009 on revenues of $21.6 million, up from a loss of more than $2 million in 2008. On 19 October 2010, Swenson Granite, based in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the county seat, seat of Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Merrimack County. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 43,976, making it the List of municipalities ...

, announced that it and Rock of Ages had agreed to merge. Swenson paid Rock of Ages shareholders a total of $39 million. On 16 September 2016, Polycor inc., of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada -a natural stone producer, announced the acquisition of Swenson Granite and Rock of Ages Corporation to become the largest producer of marble and granite in North America. This also includes the Canadian division of Rock of Ages Corporation, located in Stanstead, Quebec, along the Vermont and Quebec border. ROAC maintains the world's largest "deep hole" granite quarry. The quarry is called the "E. L. Smith Quarry", and the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

Barre Granite is mined there. Granite was originally quarried using primitive techniques in which hand saws and explosive charges were used to blast away the "benches" of the quarry. Modern techniques have evolved to include the use of diamond-tipped wire saws and water jets. Visitors to the Rock of Ages factory and gift shop can also watch quarriers in the quarry cutting the granite away from the quarry wall.Tours and Activities Rock of Ages Corporation
Rockofages.com. Retrieved on 2014-04-12. The company was one of the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

-related businesses profiled in the 2005

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

documentary ''

A Cemetery Special Richard Sebak (born June 5, 1953) is an American public broadcasting television producer, writer and narrator who lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States. Early life and education Richard Sebak was born on June 5, 195 ...

''.

Notable works

* United States

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

Memorial,

United Nations Memorial Cemetery The United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK; ), located at Tanggok in the Nam District, Busan, Nam District,; also seeKorea 1:50,000 Pusan Sheet 7019 III (1947) an of Busan,As a transliteration from Korean, the city name 부산 () was ...

Busan, South Korea Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

– a

Frank Gaylord Frank Chalfant Gaylord II (March 9, 1925 – March 21, 2018) was an American sculptor best known for "The Column", a sculptural tableau of United States soldiers and sailors which is part of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. C ...

sculpture carved from Barre Granite.

References

External links

* {{official site, http://www.rockofages.com/
Canadian Website
Granite companies Mining in Vermont Granite quarries Companies based in Vermont Barre (town), Vermont Non-renewable resource companies established in 1885 1885 establishments in Vermont Quarries in the United States