Cedar Hill (Geiger) Quarries

Location: west bank of Octoraro Creek. 0.4 miles north of the state line.

On the west bank of Octoraro Creek about ¾ mile north of the State Line Walter Geiger is operating a quarry in serpentine. This quarry was opened originally for road metal in 1924. The stone is shot down, crushed, screened, and sacked. The product of one ledge is dark green serpentine, known as oak leaf grnaules, and of another ledge is light green, called emerald granules. The granules are used for terrazzo floors. Serpentine rubble for building stones could be produced here (Stone, 1932).

Several openings have been made for serpentine. One of the quarries was probably worked for building stone before 1900. Quarrying began again in 1924, for road material. In the 1930s Walter Geiger crushed serpentine to produce dark and light green granules for terrazzo flooring.

In 1953 or 1954 the Geiger Quarries were reopened as the Cedar Hill crushed stone quarries by D. M. Stoltzfus and Son Inc., of Talmage, PA. When visited by the writers in 1956, the active quarry was about 300 feet long and 180 feet deep. Serpentine exposed in the quarry ranges from fine to course grained and from pale yellow-green through bright green to dark gray or black. About 20 different sizes of stone, all for road material, are produced with crushing and screening equipment on the premises. Crushed stone from Cedar Hill quarry is used in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and, to a less extent, Virginia (Pearre and Heyl, 1960).