Our annual Mineral Collection Open House opens the quarry to rock collectors, and offers the opportunity for fund-raising activities by a local church youth group.

Trilobite Fossil

Please call 570-758-3011 for upcoming rockhounding events.

Meckley's have been quarrying limestone in Northumberland County for over 60 years. To most of us, that seems like a long time. However, compared to the history of the limestone, 60 years is a mere fraction of an instant -- the limestone at the Meckley Quarry is 400 million years old, give or take a few million years.

400 million years ago, an inland sea lapped over what is now Northumberland County. Geologists tell us that it was a shallow salt water sea, probably not more than 40 feet deep.

The climate was tropical because at that time, Pennsylvania was actually located below the equator. (This is possible through "continental drift". Over time, our state has slowly traveled to where it is today, and it is still moving at the rate of a few inches per year). Millions of tiny creatures lived in the warm tropical sea that covered Pennsylvania. When they died, their shells broke into pieces and sank to the sea floor. The shells chemically consisted of calcium and magnesium carbonate.

As the bits and pieces of shells accumulated over tens of millions of years, tiny crystals of the mineral calcite grew into the spaces between the shell particles and cemented them together. The calcite crystals are visible today as the white streaks of mineral that you see exposed in pieces of rock and along the highwall. After millions of years of heat and pressure, these minerals formed the grey-colored solid-rock formation that is currently being mined in the Meckley Quarry.

| home | products | applications | quality | services | history | contractors | locations |
| community | feedback | words from President | search |