Sylacauga marble, also commonly known as Alabama marble, is a
marble that is found in a belt running through
Talladega County, Alabama.[1] It is prized for its pure white color and its crystalline structure. The stone is named after the town of
Sylacauga, Alabama, which is sometimes called "the Marble City".[2] Sylacauga marble has been called the "world's whitest".[3] Discovered in 1814, it has been mined for over 160 years, and is used for building, sculpture, and industry.[2] The
Alabama Legislature passed Act 755 on September 12, 1969, which made this marble the state's
official rock.[4]
Occurrence
Sylacauga marble occurs mainly in Alabama's Talladega County. It runs in a swath 32 miles (51 km) in length, from the
Coosa River to just south of the city of
Talladega. The deposit is up to 600 feet (180 m) in depth and is focused on the city of
Sylacauga, for which it is named.[4]
Mining
The first quarry that was developed to mine the marble was that of physician Edward Gantt, established in 1834.[2] The George Herd Family consolidated several smaller quarries shortly thereafter and sold the first quarried marble from the area in 1838 for use as funerary monuments.[2] These and various other quarry operations expanded during the last decades of the nineteenth century.[2] Italian sculptor
Giuseppe Moretti discovered the marble while in Alabama during 1903. He was working on the massive
Vulcan statue for the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, commissioned by the Commercial Club of
Birmingham.[2] He established the Moretti-Harrah Marble Company, which exposed other areas of the country to Sylacauga marble.[2]
Major mining operations today include Omya, Sylacauga Marble Mining, and Canadian Polycor Company.[2] Although the pure white color is most widely known in the market, portions of the deposit produce types with bodies or veining in black, pink, gray, and yellow hues.[3][4]
Uses
Sylacauga marble is fine-grained and nearly pure calcite, making it extremely similar to white
Carrara marble.[1] Sylacauga marble was used for
Gutzon Borglum's bust of
Abraham Lincoln in the
United States Capitol rotunda. He commented that the stone's fine texture let him portray the expression of kindness on Lincoln's face, something he had never been able to do with other stones.[5]
Aside from use as sculptural media and as a building stone, Sylacauga marble is also used in industry as a paint pigment, for pharmaceuticals, as a coating to whiten high-quality paper, and other purposes.[2] It is also used in agriculture as a soil amendment.[2][3]
Structures utilizing Sylacauga marble
The translucent Sylacauga marble ceiling of the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
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abc"Official State Rock: Marble". Official Symbols and Emblems of Alabama. Alabama Department of Archives and History. 14 January 2010. Retrieved 16 October 2010.