Geological fault zone creates jobs in limestone quarries

Geological fault zone creates jobs in limestone quarries

Written by Karen R. Thompson Friday, 07 September 2007

The National Weather Service describes this area of Texas as an “eroded region at the southern edge of the Edwards Plateau.”

This “erosion” was formed by the Balcones Escarpment, a fault zone that runs from near Del Rio to the Red River. It separates the Hill Country from the Coastal Plains, which is especially visible on a drive from Lady Bird Lake, past Mount Bonnell and up to the Jollyville Plateau.

The Balcones Escarpment, or fault zone, is made up of limestone and dolomite — carbonated minerals — and calcite. Long-time residents of the Leander and Cedar Park area have dug up honeycomb rocks in their yards. These rocks were made when the earth moved, fractures formed and seeping rainwater mixed with sulfurous gases to form cracks.

Barton Springs in Austin is a direct result of the Balcones Escarpment forcing water to the surface by artesian pressure.

The rock and quarry industries of Travis and Williamson counties pre-date the Civil War. In the 1880s, the Austin and Northwestern Railroad was constructed to transport granite from Marble Falls to build the new Texas Capitol building in Austin. This railroad was used by George Cluck in his quarry operation in Cedar Park. After his death in 1920, his operation closed.

Recovery from the Great Depression was difficult in this area. Farming was not profitable, and Leander men were often traveling away from home for employment. The old Cluck Quarry became Austin Whitestone Company, operated by Bill and John Benzel.

In 1929, the Texas Quarries Company was established around present-day RM 1431. A railroad feeder track was laid to more easily transport the limestone.

Following the end of World War II, in the early 1940s, Bob and Frank Allen opened Leander Limestone Quarry Company, located in the area that is now Crystal Falls Golf Course.

Bob Allen had been with Texas Quarries and was experienced in the limestone industry.

The 1930 United States Census for Leander showed many families in which the head of the household listed the quarry industry under occupation.

Many of the men who worked in the quarry became veterans of World War II, and a few moved to Leander from Indiana when rock quarries were fading in that state. Kirk Hampton was one of those Indiana workers.

Some Leander boys worked at the quarry in the summertime during school vacation.

One of those young men was Edd Mack Fulkes, son of Buster Fulkes.

An infamous story about the younger Fulkes scaring workers with a dead snake is evidence that Edd Mack did not make the quarry his career choice.

The Leander Limestone Quarry closed in the mid-1960s. Most of the men named here are deceased, but in the years it was open, the quarry served the community well and provided employment for men to stay near home.