Rock of Ages Corporation is a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

ing and finishing

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

located in Graniteville,

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. It was founded in 1885. The company employs around 230 people, and made a profit of around $800,000 in 2009 on revenues of $21.6 million, up from a loss of more than $2 million in 2008. On 19 October 2010, Swenson Granite, based in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...

, announced that it and Rock of Ages had agreed to merge. Swenson paid Rock of Ages shareholders a total of $39 million. On 16 September 2016, Polycor inc., of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada -a natural stone producer, announced the acquisition of Swenson Granite and Rock of Ages Corporation to become the largest producer of marble and granite in North America. This also includes the Canadian division of Rock of Ages Corporation, located in Stanstead, Quebec, along the Vermont and Quebec border. ROAC maintains the world's largest "deep hole" granite quarry. The quarry is called the "E. L. Smith Quarry", and the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

Barre Granite is mined there. Granite was originally quarried using primitive techniques in which hand saws and explosive charges were used to blast away the "benches" of the quarry. Modern techniques have evolved to include the use of diamond-tipped wire saws and water jets. Visitors to the Rock of Ages factory and gift shop can also watch quarriers in the quarry cutting the granite away from the quarry wall.Tours and Activities , Rock of Ages Corporation
Rockofages.com. Retrieved on 2014-04-12. The company was one of the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

-related businesses profiled in the 2005

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

documentary ''

A Cemetery Special Richard "Rick" Sebak (born June 5, 1953) is an American public broadcasting television producer, writer and narrator who lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States. Early life and education Richard Sebak was born on Jun ...

''.

Notable works

* United States

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

Memorial,

United Nations Memorial Cemetery The United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK; ), located at Tanggok in the Nam District,; also seeKorea 1:50,000 Pusan Sheet 7019 III (1947) an City of Busan,As a transliteration from Korean, the city name 부산 () was typically spel ...

Busan, South Korea Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

– a

Frank Gaylord Frank Chalfant Gaylord II (March 9, 1925 – March 21, 2018) was an American sculptor best known for "The Column", a sculptural tableau of United States soldiers and sailors which is part of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. C ...

sculpture carved from Barre Granite.

References

External links

* {{official site, http://www.rockofages.com/
Canadian Website
Granite companies Mining in Vermont Granite quarries Companies based in Vermont Barre (town), Vermont Non-renewable resource companies established in 1885 1885 establishments in Vermont Quarries in the United States