Another “Motion” at the Becket Quarry, have you seen this one? We found a drill somewhere around the Old Motion Trail and a bridge made from railroad ties of the Chester Becket Railroad. A true outdoor museum awaits all hikers and families to discover the operations of the Chester Hudson Granite Company.

One of the few branch lines ever built on the Boston & Alabany was the 5.27 mile Chester & Becket Railroad, terminating in Chester. Its purpose was to deliver granite from the Becket Quarries to the Chester finishing works.

Since the Civil War days and until shortly after the end of World War II, Chester was known as “Granite Town” or Quarry Town.” Excellent quality blue granite very hard and flawless was excavated from the several open quarry holes in this area during that period of time.

A five mile-long railroad spur was laid to the Becket quarries and the huge chunks of stone were transported by rail to the local “stone sheds” Here they were cut up, polished, carved and lettered for monuments and tomb stones. Much of the rough material was also shipped across the country to be used in the building of bridges and other permanent structures.

More than one hundred skilled stone-cutters were employed here. Competition from the softer, less durable Indiana limestone and smaller cemetery monuments brought an end to the extensive quarrying of granite. Then, with the advent of the sand-blasting technique for carving and lettering stone, the skilled artisans found themselves out of work.

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