Lost River - Karst Information Portal

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook
Figure 15. Stratigraphy of the Crawford Upland at Tower Quarry and vicinity
from quarry and regional data ( from Mulzer, Stone, and IGS).
Stop 2: Tower Quarry
Tower Quarry (Figure 14) has excellent
exposures of the lower Chester Series
sandstones and limestones and also two of
the main cave bearing units, the Paoli and
Ste. Genevieve limestones of the Blue River
Group. We will see an approximately 120foot-tall
highwall (Figure 15) in a quick stop
which will begin our exploration of the Indiana
stratigraphic column from the Chester Series
in the west to Devonian limestones to the far
east. We will visually examine only those rocks
exposed in the northwest and north walls of
108
the quarry. The Ste.
Genevieve and Paoli
are used as crushed
stone. The quarry
was developed in the
early 1970s during
the construction of
Interstate 64. It has
been owned and
operated by Mulzer
Crushed Stone since
about 1984.
The stratigraphy
of the quarry highwall
and surrounding
hillside is shown
in Figure 15 & 16.
The Tower quarry
has about 120 feet
of section exposed,
including the bottom
of the Sample, the
entire Beaver Bend,
Bethel and Paoli, and
the upper and middle
Ste. Genevieve. Other
rocks and residual
soils are above the
highwall for at least
30 feet. The Tower
Quarry is on the
edge of Dry Run, an
incised Blue River/
Ohio River tributary.
The quarry allows us
to see the inside of the Crawford Upland in the
heart of the karst. Wyandotte Cave is about
3 miles cross-country to the east in the exact
same interval seen at Tower Quarry.
Travel to Stop 3: Horseshoe Bend Vista
We will return along Tower Road to
Carefree to travel south on State Road 66
about 6 miles to scenic Leavenworth and then
about 6 miles east along the Ohio River scenic
overlook route to Wyandotte Cave, quickly
stopping at the regionally famous Overlook
Restaurant scenic vista. Positioned uniquely