Here are more photos of the differences between the quarries
and the stone.

This page is very long with a lot of photographs in it, we have optimised them but they may take a time to load, depending on your modem speed.     If you are interested in where the genuine red stone for Sacred pipes comes from please stay and look at the information.

This looks like Catlinite, however Catlinite NEVER comes in a geode form. This is definitely NOT Catlinite. Catlinite comes only in layers of about 1 1/2 inches to 3 inches thick, the thickest is rare to find, although last year Chuck did get some out of that size.	This photo shows what the stone looks like where it lays. As you can see it is flat not round like the above photo, and the color is less purple and mottled in more subdued colors than the geode above.

This is what it looks like when you are down in the quarry. The stone wall that you see is quartzite, and has to be broken through. Not easy. This is the the quarry that Chuck has used for many years and the same one that his father used before him at the monument, a working quarry that has been used for hundreds of years. The pipestone layer is way down where the red area is in the bottom left corner.         This is as much room you will have to move in. Just enough room to swing your hammer, or pickaxe. You can see your tools on the bottom corner of the picture, so pick them up and lets get working! What do you mean, 'No Way!' don't you like the idea of breaking your back for a few weeks?

The two pictures above show the jigsaw effect of the way the Catlinite lays, they are not in square slabs but come out along the seams which are all shapes in the second picture you can see the seam line running back at an angle. This is where the quarrier will separate the two pieces from each other. Both will have various thicknesses as can be seen in the first picture.

You can see the Catlinite layer where the hammer head is in the top photo. You can see by the photos that getting the Catlinite out is a difficult, time consuming job. You can also see that when Chuck quarries he makes sure the area is clean and as dust free as possible, that way he can feel where the hairline cracks are in the rocks.

These photos are copyright Chuck Derby 2002,2003 All Rights Reserved

The Other Quarries

Please point your mouse on to each picture to read what they are.

The above photos are all from the same quarry.

The quarry has been in use for a number of years. It is owned by business people in Pipestone. They sell the stone in their store, motel and to other businesses. This stone is also sold on the Internet in EBay auctions. we bought some from a number of these auctions, and have the paperwork trail to show the proceedure. The pieces of stone couldn't be worked, a number of craftspeople have tried, and it just breaks. One seller had been asked if this was stone from the quarries in Pipestone and he answered that it was the stone from Pipestone that the Indians had used for thousands of years.

There is another quarry close to the one above, where most of the stone sold in the past came from. That business has now been sold, however the stone is still being sold. We will include one photo here of that quarry so that you can see where most of the false stone sold during the last 20 years came from.

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If we compare these sites to the real ancient quarries in Pipestone, what a difference we will see. In Pipestone the earth is hardly disturbed, grasses and prairie flowers grow in abundance around the quarries, sage is there for the picking to smudge, or use as a medicine when the quarrier needs to use it, and the peace and quiet is so great that if it wasn't for the birds singing and the bees gently humming you would think you had gone deaf. Enjoy the next pictures.........

These photos are of Pipestone Creek, the prairie around the tops of the quarries, and the rock face at the Monument.	Echinacea (Purple Coneflower) growing wild on the prairie at the Monument. Surrounded by sage, Indian paintbrush, black-eyed Susan, and various other plants. The prairie in the summer of 2000 was beautiful.
wild purples	Sage growing wild and natural on the quarry rims.
Prairie in summer	Prairie Rose
	Take a walk around the ancient quarries and you will see these sights

                 

Pipestone National Monument 2006

These  photos are copyright of Chuck Derby & Gloria Hazell 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007. All Rights Reserved.

Considering the ancient quarries have been used for hundreds of years, the scenery has not been altered. What a difference to the two newer quarries, one looking like a landfill, or construction site, the other with big openings where machinery has been forcing the earth open. The lichen that is growing on the ancient stones either on the rock face or the old pile of stones at Chuck's quarry, takes 100 years to grow (travel) an inch. Just by that statistic it shows how long these quarries have been in use. Wouldn't it be nice to know that your Pipe originated here in Pipestone. Contact us at the Little Feather Center if you want genuine Catlinite. We guarantee the stone we have here, or that we recommend.