Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT. The Buena Vista Member of the Mississippian Cuyahoga Formation is an economically valuable freestone that is homogeneous with almost no sedimentary structures. The Buena Vista was one of the earliest clastic rocks quarried in Ohio. Early quarries dating at least back to 1814 were located in the hills on the north bank of the Ohio River near the village of Buena Vista, south-central Ohio. By the 1830s, quarries had also opened up along the route of the Ohio & Erie Canal in the Portsmouth area to the east; followed by quarries that opened along a railway line that ran north up the Scioto River valley. Waterways transported the Buena Vista to many cities and towns, including Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana, on the Ohio River, New Orleans on the Mississippi River, and Dayton and Columbus on the Ohio canal system. Later railways transported this stone further afield to Illinois, Wisconsin, and Alberta. Census reports, industry magazines, and other historical accounts document the use of this stone across much of the eastern US and into Canada. Historically, it has been used for a variety of items, including entire buildings, canal structures, fence posts, and laundry tubs. Some 19th-century structures built with this stone remain in cities where it was once commonly used. Literature reviews, field observations, and lab analyses are here compiled as a useful reference to both the urban and field geologist in the identification of the Buena Vista Member, a historically important building stone, in buildings and outcrops, respectively.
Date of Publication: June 2017 OHIO J SCI 117(2): 35-49
INTRODUCTION
Stone from the Buena Vista Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was once thought of as "one of the finest building stones of the country" (Orton 1891). In 1915, Andrews said, "For beauty, durability, firmness under pressure, ease of working and general good behavior under the chisel . . . I know of no stone in the country equal to it" (Bownocker 1915). A fine-grained homogeneous sandstone, the Buena Vista Member was extremely popular with architects in the early 19th century and was shipped to many cities around the country. It continues to be quarried, but only in limited quantities for building stone.
The type locality for the Buena Vista Member...