Reviving a Quarry and an Industry
The Arizona Marble Company has reopened under new ownership after being closed in 1937. This is a major blessing and a huge boon to the granite table top industry. Clyde Turnball, F.G. Moffat, and Gerald Hughes all worked together to create a quarry in 1907. In it’s inception, the quarry featured a wooden barn, a place to eat, and a four stall barn. It closed in 1937. The quarry used 110 horsepower steam engines to push the blocks. The quarry reopened in 2002 by a man named Harry Klump, a man who has history in the area dating back to his grandfather. In 2003, Harry Klump used new techniques to create a quarry that revitalized the land. With a fresh new quarry in place, Harry Klump has brought new life to the quarry and created opportunities using his abilities and foresight. Harry Klumps family history along with his abilities and know how has allowed him to break new ground. Harry’s ancestors were mostly ranchers, but Harry’s vision led him towards creating quarry to mine for marble.
Currently the operation features five men who produce 250 tons of labour on a monthly basis. The Arizona Marble Company is back in business and is set to continue to grow into a lucrative company. Distributors are taking notice and the company is selling domestically as well as abroad to international markets such as Italy and China. The company continues to grow substantially and find new sources of marbles in the mountains.
Granite tools in the quarry are used to dig deeper into the marble and build the material conditions for industrial growth. The marble in the quarry is of very high quality, testing out to 99.9% calcium carbonatecarbonate, and a compressive strength of 14,000 PSI. The high quality of marble allows for robust production and sales on the market. Granite blades are used to cut through the marble.
The Arizona Marble Company primarily works in places like the Cochise County in Arizona. Quartzite blade is also used to cut up the marble and build it into a marketable product.
Harry Klump introduced new quarry types, and new techniques to mine for marble in the area. While retaining the old model, he expanded his operations to a greater extent and broke new ground in the industry. Marble is currently being distributed in four colors, like Arizona Statuario, Arizona Ash, Arizona Monsoon and Apache Blue. The diversity of the colors and shape of the marble adds to the strength of the quarry.
Granite tools such as a quartzide blade and granite blades are all used in tandem to build and create the final product of marble. Harry Klump has done an outstanding job in creating a quarry out of his family history and a dream. He’s managed to revitalize an industry that seemed like it was stuck in the past, and modernized it towards a sustainable future.
The operation is based solely in the eastern part of Tucson, Arizona, in a town called Wilcox. The site has seen massive industrial growth and a boom since the inception of the Arizona Marble Company. The Arizona Marble Company also recently opened up a fabrication shop which can be used to build multiple tiles, slabs, and blocks.
Quartzite blade is used to cut through the marble and create a strong slab of marble. The operation in Wilcox is steadily expanding, and developing into bigger markets. What started out 80 years ago is now a robust, full scale operation that spans state lines and t throughout a global network. The Arizona Marble Company is a state of the art marble developing company that is steadily breaking new ground.