Virginia City, Mont. — For thousands and thousands of years this has been a time-tested trade.
From the Great Pyramids to the Taj Mahal, craftsmen have used this simple material to construct some of the greatest buildings and monuments in history.
The stone is valued for its durability and beauty.
Carl Marcus is a mason.
NBC Montana Went with Carl to a river bed near Virginia City where he collected river rocks from Alder Gulch sediments.
The drainage was a boat that floated in a pond of water and extracted gold from the river bed.
“A hundred years ago,” he said, “he fell from a gold digger working in Alder Gulch.”
As a professional mason for many years, Carl said it was an excellent building material.
“I use it for decorative home veneers and for fireplaces,” he said.
Collecting stones is hard work.
We watch as Carl places several large rocks into fenced-in trash cans for future use.
He weighs each bin on a scale.
Carl is also a rock purveyor.
“Being a mason, I know what building stone should look like,” he said. “That’s why I choose stones for other masons.”
A mason took us to a finished project, stone veneer on a frame wall in a Virginia City home.
It looks like a full-fledged stone structure.
But it is not so.
By chipping away at the back of the large stones and creating a veneer, it “gives the appearance of a solid stone structure.”
Carl found a variety of Montana rocks to install on that wall.
“I know there are several volcanoes,” he said, looking at the colorful rocks. – Pointing to the small red dots on one of the stones, he said: “There is a garnet Niz there.”
The window sill at home is a Pritchard from northwest Montana.
“It was being dug in Perm,” said the mason. “He was brought to the rock yards in Missoula and sold as a Perma flag.”
Next stop was to see the old quarry above Virginia City.
It is a landmark in one of Montana’s most historic towns.
“This is an andesite quarry,” he said. – Most of the stone for the buildings in Virginia City was quarried here.
Carl took NBC Montana to another house in town and rebuilt the retaining wall.
“It’s native rock outside the area,” he said.
He thinks it was originally built by a miner and wasn’t built very well.
But he said he was strong enough to last a hundred years.
He showed us another retaining wall he built on a historic house in Virginia City.
He came from a friend’s quarry in Camas Prairie.
“It’s quartzite,” he said, “it’s from the Hot Springs area.
Then we went to Carl’s hometown of Sheridan.
There he showed us a brick wall with names of local residents and businesses.
“This is a monumental project,” he said, “and I did it together with members of the library.”
Later we met Carl in Missoula where he showed us the work he has done over the years.
He showed us some stoneware he made at home in Missoula in the 1980s.
Its variety of stoneware comes from all over Montana.
It has many types and colors.
He wanted to create movement in the beauty of the wall as seen in nature.
“You want to get some movement in rock work,” he said. “Otherwise, the wall becomes something that your mind quickly determines, and then there’s no reason to look back.”
He loves the look of the different textures in the house and the shadows it creates.
“As you move along the wall during the day,” he said, “the wall changes.”
Dick Clemow has a converted log cabin near Missoula.
He hired Carl to help him build a large rock chimney.
“I knew I wanted a rock chimney in my house,” said Dick. “The format allows us to create this huge rock structure.”
“When the temperature drops to 30 degrees and you have 40 tons of stone and concrete in your house,” he said, “it reduces your energy demand.”
“This stone is actually a veneer,” said Carl, the chimney worker. – The rock is four to six inches thick. But it applies to an existing structure.”
Carl also worked hard with Dick to decorate his yard with rocks.
The men built several retaining walls.
“He (Dick) likes to work the stone,” said Carl, “leaving each course a little further back than the last, and going up a ladder to hold the roof.”
“Carl calls it Chinese armor,” said Dick, “because if you look at old Chinese armor, it’s amazing.”
Dick’s Planting Rock is from Camas Prairie.
He said they had the best stone to choose from when building the wall.
“When you’re building,” said Dick, “and you’ve got a whole field full of rocks and a great selection to choose from, it goes very fast and very well.”
“It works perfectly,” he said. – Here it will be like the walls of Rome.
Pointing to one of the walls, he said, “This wall will be here for thousands of years.
Travel anywhere in Montana and you’ll find rock, all kinds of rock.
These are rocky mountains.
For crafters like Carl, the Treasure State offers a choice.