Mount Carmel Trap Rock Quarry, Hamden, New Haven County, Connecticut, USAi

Regional Level Types
Mount Carmel Trap Rock Quarry	Quarry (Abandoned)
Hamden	Town
New Haven County	County
Connecticut	State
USA	Country

A quarry in trap rock at the west end of the famous Sleeping Giant or Mount Carmel ridge, which is underlain by a sill of West Rock Diabase. Despite the gash, very little mineralization has been reported from here. The quarrying actually led to the preservation of the ridge, as summarized below by the late Ed Force:

THE GIANT'S LOBOTOMY by Ed Force
Not far north of New Haven, a traprock ridge runs roughly east-west, showing its oddly shaped profile against the sky, and taking a form that has given it its popular name. Once called the Blue Hills, more recently (and still officially) Mount Carmel, it has been known for many years as The Sleeping Giant. Since 1933 it has been Sleeping Giant State Park.

In the early days, though, the hills and hollows of the Giant's profile were privately owned, and a century ago it was regarded as a pleasant place for prosperous and prominent New Haven folk to retire for a weekend or a summer outside the bustling city.

Long before that, the Giant was the subject of dreams and schemes that involved metals, precious and otherwise. In 1721, three New Yorkers leased the mining rights in the hills for every metal except iron. They were to pay 1/20 of the ore they dug for fifty years, but if they did no mining for two years, the lease would be void--which is exactly what happened in 1723.
The fun started in 1911, when Judge Willis Cook, who owned the Giant's head, was persuaded to lease it to the Mount Carmel Trap Rock Company for quarrying. The lease contained the stipulation that the quarry, and its effect on the Giant's profile, should not be visible from the nearest road to the south.

By 1912 the company's machinery was set up, and blasting and crushing began. The neighbors were furious at this loud and dusty intrusion into their carefree lives. They protested, a reporter published a plea to save the Giant as a public park, but for some years the noise went on.

Then in 1925 the Sleeping Giant Park Association was formed, its purpose made clear by its title. The quarry lease had passed from its original holders to the Connecticut Quarries Company, and they meant to keep on quarrying. Their lease ran through 1931, but they had an option to extend it for another twenty years and intended to do just that.

Judge Cook was dead by that time; his widow was sympathetic to the cause of preserving the Giant as a park, and was willing to sell the land for $65,000--a lot of money in those days. Land on other parts of the Giant had been sold or donated to the Park Association, but could such a large amount of money be raised to buy the Giant's head?

While the Park Association raised the money, they also took legal steps against the quarry company, claiming that their quarrying was visible from the road. The quarriers claimed that this clause meant that the whole quarry face had to be visible, but the Association pointed out that the size and shape of the Giant's head had been visibly altered. The Judge agreed; quarrying at that site had to stop, but the quarry company decided to start work on the north side of the head, where their quarrying would be unseen.
Finally the money had been raised and the Giant's head was bought. Now could the Park Association buy the lease? They offered $25,000, but Ray Reigeluth, a 1908 Yalie who had risen to a high position in Connecticut Quarries, demanded the vast sum of $655,000! Negotiations dragged on while the quarriers built a road to the north side of the Giant's head.

But this was the Depression, and the market for trap rock was falling, public opinion was solidly against the quarriers, and a serious accident in the quarry had added to the bad publicity. At last the Park Association's offer of $30,000 for the lease was accepted, provided the price was paid in full within six months. Miss Helen Porter, prime mover of the Association, raised it in three months, and in 1933 the quarriers moved out and the Park Association moved in. The giant was saved, the land was donated to the State of Connecticut as a state park, and the Sleeping Giant could sleep in peace despite his unsightly lobotomy. You can still follow the trails to the quarry site and wonder at the Giant's towering flat head.

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