Marble and the Geology of Vermont

"Life comes before literature, as the material always comes before the work. The hills are full of marble before the world blooms with statues."

-Phillips Brooks quoted in Modern Marble Memorials

What is marble?

Marble is a metamorphic rock that began as limestone or dolomite before undergoing extreme amounts of heat and pressure. Most people are familiar with marble for its aesthetic use in architecture and sculpture, and its value as a durable rock.

Marble is also valuable for its properties as a crushed stone, with its chemical properties making it useful in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agriculture, and paint. Each of these uses have been influenced by a variety of sociocultural and technological factors and have shifted the priorities of the marble industry over time.

More About Marble's Uses

Discarded material in West Rutland, VT (Puckhaber 2025)

Limestone face

Marble face

How is marble formed?

Limestone is a sedimentary rock primarily composed of the mineral calcite that forms on the shores and floors of tropical seas. It made of the accumulation of shells, fossils, and biological remnants, though it may have also layers of clay or lenses of sand depending on the conditions of the beach or sea.

The tropical shoals that give rise to limestone are often not peaceful or unchanging over time, and the ocean serves as a sort of "conveyor belt" with the floor spreading apart at the center and slipping beneath the continents.

When a limestone seabed is dragged down beneath Earth's crust, additional heat transforms calcite grains and fuses them together tightly. This dynamic action of rock layers as they become buried and twisted causes flat lying layers to bend and swirl together, with the rock not "melting" but becoming flexible.

This process of heating and warping is responsible for marble's "pattern", with the gray swirls made by clay layers that got folded and smeared in the process of change.

Before being transformed into marble, limestone has very small crystal formations which become large in the metamorphic process. Looking at the size of crystals helps us understand the degree of change a piece of marble may have undergone.

Because of its chemical composition of calcium carbonate, marble in its purest form usually has a base color of white or cream. The mineral impurities in the stone are what give marble its signature veins.

Stone producing regions of the United States map by William C. Day (1893)

Because the recrystallization of limestone has to do with heat and pressure, most marble beds are found in areas of extreme folding or igneous intrusions; regions with mountains. The most significant marble belts of the United States can be found in the Appalachian region along the east coast and the Rocky Mountains and Coastal Ranges of the west.

According to Mineral Resources of the United States, a 1913 USGS report, the 3 states producing the most marble in order of value were Vermont, Tennessee, Georgia. These states produced more than 76% of the total marble being produced in the United States at the time.

For more maps and information on the geology of the United States, see this USGS publication from 1974.

Taconic Mountains, Green Mountains, and the Marble Valley

Map of the marble valley derived from map of the Northeast Appalachians and Earth@Home (Puckhaber 2025)

Given the way in which marble and metamorphic rock occurs at places where layers deep within the Earth are subjected to intense heat and pressure, marble and other rocks that form through similar processes can typically be found at convergent plate boundaries where tectonic plates collide.

As a result, the "marble valley" of Vermont can be found between the Green Mountains and Taconic Mountains; part of the larger formation of the Appalachian Mountains along the eastern United States.

Learn more at the Earth@Home page on Topography of the Appalachians and Piedmont for information about the marble valley's location.

The "Marble, Granite, and Slate Industries of Vermont Field Trip Guidebook" from the 28th International Geological Congress in 1989 outlines the physiographic regions of Vermont and describes how the quarrying of "true marbles" only occurs in the Champlain and Vermont Valley region, whereas "verde antique marble" is found and quarried in the Green Mountains region.

For more information on marble in Vermont, see the Department of Environmental Conservation's page on marble. For links to other resources, see their page on exploring Vermont geology.

Generalized map of physiographic provinces of Vermont (1989)

More specific geological makeup of part of Rutland (1894)

Though the Vermont Marble Company's influence reaches across the United States and throughout western Vermont, the focus of much of the company's narrative revolves around Rutland county and the towns that once made up Rutland before West Rutland and Proctor became their own towns in 1886.

Learn more about the history of Rutland from the Rutland Historical Society, including before West Rutland and Proctor became independent towns.

Click on each of the maps below to see them in full.

1861 Geological map of Vermont

1861 Surface geology of Vermont

1951 Mineral Deposits and Occurrences in Vermont

"The Commercial Marbles of Western Vermont"

In 1912, T. Nelson Dale put together a detailed report on the commercial marble industry of Vermont for the United States Geological Survey. This report proves especially helpful in its illustrations and explanations regarding the geologic makeup of the marble belt and specific information regarding quarries of the time which helped inform this and other sections of this website.

For more information, see Dale's full map of the marble belt or read "The Commercial Marbles of Western Vermont" in full.

Learn more at Geographic Influences in the Early History of Vermont.

References

King, Phillip B., and Helen M. Beikman. 1974. “Explanatory Text to Accompany The Geologic Map of the United States.” U.S. Government Printing Office. https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0901/report.pdf.

Guide, Step. 2023. “How is Marble Formed? (A Quick Guide).” Keystone Marble & Granite. https://keystone-granite.com/how-is-marble-formed/.

Modern Marble Memorials. Proctor, VT: Vermont Marble Co., 1920.

U.S. Bureau of Mines. The Technology of Marble Quarrying. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1916. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=kb8kjgYH26UC&pg=GBS.PR10&hl=en.

U.S. Geological Survey. “Mineral Resources of the United States - Calendar Year 1893.” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1894.

U.S. Geological Survey. The Commercial Marbles of Western Vermont. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1912. https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0521/report.pdf.

U.S. Geological Survey. Mineral Resources of the United States: Part II-Nonmetals. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1913.

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