The Marble Mill Site Park Committee is looking for original pieces of facing from the Marble Documents Vault in to restore the historic structure.
“The Documents Vault is nearly the only standing portion of the once-expansive Marble finishing mill,” a Mill Site Committee member said in the current issue of the Crystal Valley Echo newspaper.
Over the years, much of the Document Vault’s marble facing was removed by area residents and souvenir collectors.
The Document Vault was one of the last additions to the finishing mill complex, which was built from 1907-1917 and was used to house and protect architectural renderings, fabrication drawings and company records from the fires, floods and avalanches that plagued Marble and the marble mill.
In 1907, the mill was reportedly the largest marble finishing facility in the world, stretching for one-quarter mile along the Crystal River, approximately 25 miles southeast of Carbondale in Gunnison County. The nearby Colorado Yule marble quarry and mill employed nearly 1/3 of the estimated 2,000 residents of the town of Marble, the Crystal Valley Echo article said.
The town, marble quarry and mill later gained fame for supplying the stone for the Lincoln Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C.
Many of the Italian workers at the quarry and mill were called back to their native country during World War I. The mill was later hit by fires and avalanches, and the Colorado Yule’s fortunes began a long decline as a result of the increasing use of alternative building materials. The operation closed its doors in 1941, but a subsequent company resumed mining at the Colorado Yule marble quarry above town in the late 1980s.
Anyone with pieces of marble facing from the Documents Vault who would like to see them used in restoring the structure is asked to call Connie at 963-6417 or Bettie Lou at 704-0554.
