Quarry Boys

In the foothills, North East of Boise is an ancient stone quarry. This quarry is ancient to me since the quarry has been there as long as I have been alive. The quarry was founded in the 1800’s. They quarried sandstone from Table Rock mountain a very interesting plateau rising from the Boise Valley. The first stone house in the valley was built with this sandstone as well as the stone for the state capitol building, Boise High School ad other notable buildings in downtown Boise. The quarry is located probably a mile or so North and East of the Boise River and as kids my brother and our best John and Tom spent a lot of our free time wandering round Boise River bottoms crossing the river and hiking all the way up to table rock.

I wish I could say I knew the process of how Table rock came to be . I suspect the flat outcropping constituting the West end of this little mountain came to be from the slabs of sandstone being chiseled off the sides leaving vast planes of smooth surface. Looking back I guess surfaces could rise thirty feet off the quarry floor. The quarry was abandonded by the time we started exploring its remain. Great slabs of stone were scattered round the quarry floor piled on top of each other, some times being stack like books and in other places jumbled and jostled leaving warrens of natural tunnels. These were great to explore.

We were warned that we had to be very careful in the heat of the summer because these stone formations were a wonderful gathering place for Rattle snakes. I do not remember ever seeing a rattler in all my days messing round the quarry but the warnings always kept me alert. Of course in the winter , Fall and spring this was not an issue.

On the flat top of table rock a huge cross has been erected and lighted. In the dark lf the evening the cross can be seen for miles across the valley. Some of my earliest memories of driving in the car after dark and seeing the cross just floating in the air. The cross was nondenominational made of huge I-beams painted white. The cross itself was out in the open and easy to get to. In fact I can remember now how defaced the cross was I was surprised. The cross was lit with neon and was lit most of the time. I don’t know now if the cross continues to be lit in light of all this constitutional separation of church and state. I have not heard. I imagine the cross is still there I’ll have to ask.

The territory round the quarry was pretty rugged going and I could not return now if I wanted—unless Boise has built an accessible trail up there. I’ll have to check this out. If there were access to this area I surly would return to see the quarry all over again.