Vinalhaven’s Granite Legacy

Take the lovely 1 hour and 15 minute ferry ride from Rockland to Vinalhaven. Step (or drive) off the ferry and enter a picturesque Maine island setting. Carver’s Harbor to the right is filled with lobster boats, sailboats, and fancy yachts. Work your way around the island of only 1,200 year-round residents, and you’ll find restaurants, shops, art galleries, and million dollar homes. The pace is slow, the views are impressive, and the lobster rolls are pricey. Under your sandaled feet, the island sits on a bed of ancient granite. But not just any granite. It’s granite that was powerful enough to have reshaped skylines across America.

For nearly a century, Vinalhaven was one of the most important granite-producing communities in the United States. Its stone helped build the foundations of cities, while its people—many of them immigrants—left behind a legacy carved in rock.

The Granite Boom

Granite quarrying on Vinalhaven began in earnest in the 1820s, but the industry truly took off after the Civil War. By the 1880s, the Bodwell Granite Company—named for owner and future Maine governor Joseph R. Bodwell—was shipping thousands of tons of stone to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and beyond.

Vinalhaven granite was prized for its strength and resistance to weathering. Engineers wanted it for bridges, courthouses, post offices, and monuments. The Bodwell Granite Company became one of the largest employers in the state and was so well-known that stone from Vinalhaven was specified by name in major construction contracts. Vinalhaven granite can be found in projects up and down the Atlantic seaboard, including:

• Washington Monument – Washington, D.C.
• United States Capitol Building – Washington, D.C.
• State, War, and Navy Department Building (now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) – Washington, D.C.
• Post Office Department Building – Washington, D.C.
• Library of Congress – Washington, D.C.
• New York Stock Exchange – New York City, NY
• Philadelphia City Hall – Philadelphia, PA
• Grant’s Tomb – New York City, NY
• Brooklyn Bridge – New York City, NY
• Park Street T station – Boston, MA
• Fort Knox – Prospect, ME
• Maine State House – August, ME
• Indiana State Capitol (24 polished columns) – Indianapolis, IN
• Cathedral of Saint John the Divine – New York City, NY
• Union Mutual Life Insurance Building – Boston, MA
• Suffolk County Courthouse – Boston, MA
• Customs Houses and Post Offices – Various cities including New York, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Buffalo
• Railroad Station and Board of Trade – Chicago, IL
• Pennsylvania Railroad Station – Philadelphia, PA
• Masonic Temple – Philadelphia, PA

A Town Built on Stone and Strong Backs

At its peak in the 1880s and 1890s, the granite industry employed over 1,500 men on Vinalhaven—more than half the island’s population. Whole neighborhoods sprang up around the quarries. Workers came from across New England, but also from Sweden, Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and Italy. They brought with them traditions of stonecutting and a fierce work ethic.

By 1901, there were 152 quarries in the state and Maine was the leading granite producer in the U.S. Quarry operations were active all over Maine in places like Mount Desert Island, Hallowell, Deer Isle, Stonington, and Swan’s Island.

Daily work was grueling. Men used hand drills, feathers and wedges to split blocks before steam-powered derricks lifted the stone onto ships. The air rang with the sound of hammers and the hiss of steam. In winter, workers chipped away in snow-covered pits. In summer, the granite reflected heat like a furnace. The year-round operation ran 7 days a week. The risks were constant: falls, crushed limbs, and silicosis—a slow, choking lung disease caused by inhaling stone dust. Explosions rang out constantly as black powder, dynamite, and nitroglycerine were used to coax the granite out of the ground.

Workers were paid in Bodwell scrip, which was credit card slips of paper with a dollar amount on the front to be redeemed (only) at the Bodwell Company Store which opened in 1859 and sold groceries, dry goods, and hardware. Initially, prices at the store were lower than at other stores, but over time, prices rose and the scrip didn’t buy as much as it used to.

Vinalhaven stone cutters were getting increasingly upset by dangerous conditions, low pay, company tactics, layoffs, and payroll delays. Most had trouble making ends meet while the owners got richer and richer off lucrative contracts. The workers formed a union in 1874 hoping to improve conditions. The company responded by laying off more workers, firing one who had written letters to a Rockland newspaper, and fired another because he had done the unthinkable and had voted “straight democratic ticket.” One worker wrote:

“We are crushed down by the great soul destroying corporation…These Ring masters came here as poor as Job’s turkey and have fattened and feasted on us”

A subsequent Union-led strike helped improve conditions slightly.

From Granite King to Governor

Joseph R. Bodwell got a humble start in Methuen, Mass. working as a farm laborer. When a dam project began on the Merrimack River, he signed up to help haul granite from New Hampshire to Lawrence, MA – which is where he learned the granite trade. He then took a chance and moved North to Vinalhaven, Maine and went into the granite business with just one yoke of oxen. He soon joined up with Moses Webster and they started a business called the Bodwell & Webster Company. Demand for the stone blew up, and the fledgling business grew quickly. On Vinalhaven, they could lift the stone from the quarry into the hold of a vessel and transport it to Boston, New York, and other large cities at the cheapest possible rate.

The Bodwell quarries didn’t just operate on Vinalhaven. In 1866, Joseph moved to Hallowell and began quarrying. The granite from Hallowell was lighter in color and easier to work with and was preferred for some projects. But it was Vinalhaven granite that really gave him national prominence.

In later years, he was elected mayor of Hallowell. He then served as a delegate to the Republican Convention and folks started pushing him to run for Governor. He agreed and ended up winning 54% of the votes in the September 1886 election making him Maine’s 40th governor. He took office in January and was dead by December.

Bodwell Blue Galamanders

That might sound like a kind of amphibian, but in fact, was a very distinct piece of equipment seen on the island. The Bodwell Granite Company painted its stone wagons—known as galamanders—along with derricks and other equipment, in a distinctive shade of blue that locals came to call “Elder Littlefield Blue” or “Bodwell Blue.” Over time, this hue became the standard color for stone and farm wagons across the island. Also, the galamander itself was unique to Vinalhaven. It was a huge oak wagon with tall wooden spoke wheels. Galamanders were often 18 feet long, 6 feet wide, and the rear tires were larger than the front tires. Galamanders were equipped with a derrick or lever, to which was attached a rope tackle. They were hand operated and used to lift large pieces of stone from the ground and slung them between the two rear wheels of the vehicle. They were then hitched to up to 8 horses for transport. The largest, known as “Jumbo” had 12 foot high rear wheels.

A Vanishing Industry

By the early 20th century, demand for granite began to wane. Concrete and steel were cheaper and easier to work with. It was also much easier to ship by train and highway than by boat, so operations moved inland. Labor pressures from Unions also contributed to the demise of the industry. One by one, the quarries shut down. The Bodwell Granite Company closed in 1919 and the last major quarry operation in Maine closed in the 1930s. Some of the pits filled with water and became swimming holes; others were left as they were, quiet and echoing.

Today, reminders of the granite era are scattered across the island. The Star of Hope Lodge, once a Masonic meeting hall for quarrymen, is now an arts residency. The Vinalhaven Historical Society maintains a small museum with tools, photographs, and records. On some quiet mornings, if you walk near the old pits, you can still find hand-cut marks in the rock, or a rusted iron ring once used to lift a block weighing several tons. And the quarries are very popular swimming holes, including the infamous “nude quarry” which last I heard, had been closed to swimming by the clearly unfun new landowner.

A Legacy That Endures

Vinalhaven’s granite industry may be gone, but its legacy remains. The stone quarried here helped build the literal foundations of American civic life—courthouses, cathedrals, and monuments that still stand more than a century later. And in the lives of the descendants of quarry workers, in the stories passed down over kitchen tables, and in the granite itself—now weathered, but unyielding—that legacy still speaks.

Now that you’ve finished this rocky tale, you should check out this other piece about a famous Maine bridge made from granite.