Industrial Heritage Part of Bicentennial Celebration

The Lime City Committee celebrated Indiana's Bi-Centennial with a lunch meeting and facility tour at the historic Erie Stone Company, owned by Irving Materials, Inc., or IMI.  Among Huntington's oldest continually operating industries, the Erie Stone Company, founded in 1904, is why Huntington earned the nickname, "The Lime City" and why the economic development committee adopted the name as it works to promote industrial growth in Huntington.

 

The State of Indiana's limestone industry is well-known primarily for the structural limestone in Bedford and other Indiana Communities.  The limestone deposits on the east side of Huntington were used as aggregate to build railroad beds, streets, roads, and interstate highways.  

 

"Even before the Erie Stone Company was organized, limestone from Huntington,played an absolutely critical role role in the development of the nation's historic railroad beds during the 1860's," reported Mark Wickersham, executive director of the Huntington County Economic Development Corporation.  "Today, Erie Stone, IMI and sister company, E & B Paving, play a critical role in paving and maintaining the highways and streets of Northeast Indiana," he added.

 

Huntington County Commissioner Tom Wall noted that, "the existence of this resource in our County dramatically reduces the costs associated with paving our local roads and streets.  Having stone and asphalt being made 5 minutes away from a job site creates a huge cost savings for us.  I'm really excited they're here," he concluded.

 

The Erie Stone facility covers nearly one square mile and plunges nearly 400 feet from the surface soils.  The company mines aggregate using massive sixty-ton trucks and miles of conveyors serving powerful stone crushing mills. Geologists estimate the Erie Stone Quarry will be able to produce limestone aggregates for at least another 100 years given current demand and reserves.