Quincy Quarries Reservation

IUCN Category V - Protected Landscape / Seascape

Climber in reserve

Quincy Quarries Reservation The area is a state park in Quincy, Massachusetts in the United States. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR ) and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston. The quarries were approached by one of the first railroads in the United States and delivered over a century granite at construction sites in the area. Today, the rocks are a popular recreation area in particular with rock climbers.

History

Use as a quarry

After an intensive search throughout New England Solomon Willard selected in 1825 from this place in Quincy to win there stones for the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. After some delay the approval for the construction of a railroad was on March 4, 1826 issued to facilitate the transport of the granite. The railway pioneer Gridley Bryant designed and then built the Granite Railway, which began operating on October 7, 1826.

The granite obtained in the quarries became known throughout the United States, and soon the stone processing was the main industry in Quincy.

Subsequent uses

The last active quarry was closed in 1963. Following closure of the quarries filled with rain and ground water, and soon moved on to cliff jumpers. Due to the lying below the waterline sharp rocks and uneven depth of the pits, however, there were many injuries in the jumpers and also to some deaths, so that the local police began to look for solutions to the abandoned quarry area together with the city administration.

Already at that time the quarries were discovered by climbers. In 1970, the first book published on this subject.

In the 1980s, old telephone poles and trees were placed to prevent the descent of jumping from the cliffs into the water-filled pits. Unfortunately, the tribes quickly absorbed fully and fell 2 ft ( 0.6 m) below the surface, from where they could not be seen for the jumpers. Accordingly, the number of injuries and deaths skyrocketed. Divers searched for the missing cliff divers, often found instead of the others from this completely under water.

Designation as a protected area

In 1985, the Boston Metropolitan District Commission acquired an area of ​​22 acres ( 8.9 ha), including the quarries, and had the entire area as Quincy Quarries Reservation from. A final solution to the security problem could be with the Big Dig found by there was used to applicable excavation, fill in the quarries. This, in turn, the rock climbers opened up new possibilities, so does the former quarries were developed to support the public use of the reserve.

The protected area is connected to the hiking trails in the Blue Hills Reservation and in addition to the sporting activities also special views of the Boston skyline.

Some scenes of the films Gone Baby Gone - No Child's Play and The Invention of Lying were filmed in the old quarries.

Gallery

• Quincy Quarries Reservation

Water-filled quarry

View from the edge of the quarry to the south

View over the filled with earth quarry