Boulder quarrying in Becket…At first quarrying was pretty limited. James W. Turner, did “boulder quarrying” cutting the boulders on an old farm into shape, and hauling the rough slabs out by team. About 10,000 years ago, the glaciers covered most of New England. As the glaciers slowly moved southward, they picked up large chunks of rock from the mountains and moved them many miles to the south. When the glaciers eventually melted and retreated, these large boulders were left behind. The larger examples of these boulders are called by geologists “glacial erratics”.

The colonists who arrived in Massachusetts in the 1600’s used these glacially deposited stones as an easy source of building materials for foundations, chimneys, and stone walls. The smaller stones were used as is, while the larger stone were split apart using several simple but rather crude quarrying techniques. William Bartram, the noted naturalist, was splitting boulders as early as 1730/21 in Pennsylvania. In New England , the first recorded use of quarried field boulders occurred with the construction of King’s Chapel in Boston which was completed in 1754. The boulders for the chapel were first blasted and then the chunks were shaped into rectangular blocks using a method called “hammering.” In 1790 The New-England Farmer offered the following advice to farmers, “Stones that are very large, and which cannot with ease be removed whole, may be blown to pieces with gunpowder.” The book also suggested a second method of removing field boulders, “.. another method of breaking rocks; “Drill two holes in a stone, ranging with the grain, then filling each hole with two semi-cylindrical pieces of iron, drive a long steel wedge between them. The stone will thus split open. And commonly, very regular shaped pieces for building may be obtained.” By the mid 1800’s some farmers were supplementing their income by quarrying field boulders on their farms during the off seasons. The quarrying of boulders continued as late as the 1860’s.
Partially quarried boulders are a common occurrence with boulder quarries. Many times the reason for why it was abandoned is obvious. The boulder either split poorly or simply refused to be split at all. In the 19th century, there was a shift toward surface ledge quarrying which proved much more reliable and efficient.

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