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The versatile, utilitarian rock is found at Schuyler, Virginia, and mined there by the nation’s oldest and largest producer of American soapstone.
Photo Above: Ancient soapstone artifacts are on display at Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend, Tennessee. © Brian Stansberry.
It is said that rocks are the history books of the Earth. If so, the Blue Ridge region has a geo-library of favorite reading material for humans—soapstone. This metamorphic rock with a “soapy” soft feel has recorded our practical lives, spiritual pursuits, artistic endeavors and technological innovations from the Stone Age to this day.
Once early humans realized this amazing rock would not burn at wood-fire temperatures, absorbed and radiated heat and was nonporous and easy to carve, they started making pots, cooking slabs, and hearth liners, and then created molds for casting all manner of metal goods. For example, First Nations in the region carved bowls, effigies and smoking pipes out of soapstone from 6000-1000 BCE. Specifically, all manner of soapstone cookware dating back to 2000 BCE has been unearthed from Virginia to Georgia.
During the late 1800s, a fellow with a sharp eye spotted an outcropping in the Blue Ridge. In Nelson County, Virginia…or rather under it…he found a vein of soapstone that eventually measured as one of the largest in the world.
Known as the Albemarle-Nelson Belt, this “massive deposit of soapstone…between Lynchburg and Charlottesville, with an exposed section near Schuyler, [had] a greater percentage of workable stone than any other known deposit in the world” (Paper of the Albemarle Soapstone Company, Special Collections, UVA Library). Founded in 1883, the Alberene Soapstone Company (a combination of Albemarle and Serene for one of the three founders) began mining on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge.
From a Scientific American article dated June 6, 1896: “The Alberene soapstone is exported all over the world…its smooth texture and hardness…time-defying in their durability. Four car loads are in the laboratory at Yale; at Tiffany’s there are acid tanks; the Hahnemann Hospital, at Chicago, and the Vanderbilt Clinic, of New York, by their use testify to its merits” (Vol. LXXIV, No. 23).
©Courtesy of Alberene Soapstone Polycor Virginia Inc
At peak in the 1920s, the company employed over 2,000 people and was a self-sustaining community called Alberene—complete with a school, post office, store, churches and electricity.
“I have some old photos in the office,” says Candice Clark, current sales manager of Alberene Soapstone Company, Polycor, Inc., “and the children and grandchildren come in, tell stories and write names on the backs of the pictures.”
In the 21st century, Alberene claims the lowest carbon footprint while creating natural soapstone products that do not need (and should not have) chemical sealants or stains. This Schuyler, Virginia, company with deep roots and a long history continues to be the oldest and largest producer of American soapstone.
Follow-up note: In spring of 2017, The Quarry Gardens at Schuyler opened amongst six retired soapstone quarries offering trails, 34 Native Flora Galleries, 14 ecozones and seven conservation areas, a visitor center and a dedicated repository for Virginia’s soapstone history. Individual visits and group tours available by appointment only.
The story above is from our January/February 2020 issue.
