How does the quarry operate? I wonder.
What products are excavated/mined? Let's see.
How are the products processed? That's
a stumper.
Limestone Quarry Wall
Excavated Shale
Where is the Elmer Larson Quarry located?
The Elmer Larson Quarry is located at 15622 Barber Greene Road,
Sycamore, Illinois. From I-88, take Annie Glidden north to Route
64. From Route 64, travel east to Peace Road. Go east on Barber
Greene after it intersects with Peace Road.
The Elmer Larson Quarry is one of the largest owned corporations
in the country. Elmer Larson began management of the quarry
over 65 years ago through the use of mobile
crushing plants and impact crushers that went to various job
sites around the country to locate limestone
and gravel deposits. These machines then processed the materials
for use on various projects.
What products are excavated/mined?
The Elmer Larson Quarry has a limestone site and a sand and gravel site. Products produced in the limestone quarry include chert, shale, and dolomite. The limestone is processed in order to get a wide variety of sizes.
Sediments mined from the sand and gravel quarry are from erosional
deposits consisting of a heterogeneous mixture of materials.
The deposits are related to the advance and retreat of continental
glaciers that moved back and forth between Canada and Illinois.
The glacier deposited materials by its meltwater. Consequently,
the quarry has well sorted and layered deposits. Size
distribution of sediments concerns the amount of each different
size fraction in the deposit. Material can range from clay sized
particles to boulder sized particles. Glacial gravels, in general
tend, to contain coarse sediments. Sediments deposited above the
water table are usually brownish or reddish in color. This is
due to the oxidation of ironstone particles in the deposits. The
gravel has been exposed to weathering therefore; the sediments
contain deleterious particles.
Once the limestone is removed from the earth, it is feed through
various machines in order to get it ready for customer use.
The Hammermill crusher is a machine that the quarry often employs.
The Hammermill Crusher consists of a set of bars upon which the
limestone sits. Then hammers swing down and crush the rock,
trying to pass it through the elongated set of bars. The
limestone then falls onto another set of elongated bars that have
a narrower opening between the bars. Then another set of
hammers come down and crush the rock until it is small enough
to fit through the bars. Then, the process happens a third
time which will produce limestone chunks small enough for commercial
sale. The quarry also employs the use of Impact Crushers.
Impach crushers crush the rock. The rock, depending on its
size, passes through a sieve. Upon entrance to the second
sieve, crushers come down and crush the rock until it is small
enough to pass through that screen. This process occurs until
the rocks are able to pass through a third screen (which has the
smallest dimensions), and are ready for commercial sale.
Click here for activities
that can be used in a classroom setting to further students' understanding
of how these glacial sediments formed and whay they look like.