Granite Mountain
Marble Falls, Burnet County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This 866-foot dome of solid pink granite, covering 180 acres, contains the largest quarry of its kind in the United States. This mountain, like all granite formations, was once melted rock similar to lava. As the molten rock cooled thousands of feet below the earth's surface, it hardened into large crystals of quartz, feldspar and several dark-colored minerals. Wherever strength, durability and beauty of finish are required, granite is a favored building stone. The mountain was part of a grant made to Texas colonist William Slaughter. The site became famous commercially when a dispute arose in the 1880s over the type of stone to be used in the Capitol in Austin. The issue was settled in 1885 when Governor John Ireland resisted demands to use non-native limestone. Following this decision, a special track was built to haul the granite to the rail line in Burnet. The stone was generously donated to the state by quarry owners G. W. Lacy, N. L. Norton, and W. H. Westfall. Today granite from the quarry here is shipped to all parts of Texas, the U.S. and foreign countries for use in monuments, shafts, jetties, and buildings. It has been used in the Galveston sea wall and in new state office buildings near the Capitol in Austin.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Granite Mountain is an 866-foot dome of solid pink granite—molten rock that cooled deep underground into crystals of quartz and feldspar eons ago—and today the site of one of the largest granite quarries in the United States. Its fame was sealed in 1885 when, amid a dispute over building stone for the new Texas Capitol, Governor John Ireland resisted pressure to use imported limestone, and the quarry owners donated their native pink granite to the state. A special rail spur was built to haul the stone to Burnet, and the granite went on to face the Capitol, the Galveston sea wall, and monuments across the world.
Why it matters
This quarry gave the Texas Capitol its distinctive pink stone and stands as a monument to the state's insistence on building its landmarks from its own ground.
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Related people
- · Gov. John Ireland
- · G. W. Lacy
- · N. L. Norton
- · W. H. Westfall
- · William Slaughter
Related events
- · Construction of the Texas State Capitol
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Brandt Badger House
Marble Falls, TX
Brandt Badger, a Confederate veteran who came to Burnet County in 1885, helped found Marble Falls two years later and in 1888 built this substantial home. Its walls were cut from quarry rubble left over after shaping the great blocks of pink granite that built the Texas State Capitol at nearby Granite Mountain. The eight-room, six-fireplace house stayed in the Badger family until 1943.
Marble Falls Depot
Marble Falls, TX
Laid out in 1887, Marble Falls got its rail connection in 1893 when this depot rose on land deeded to the Austin & Northwestern Railroad, soon absorbed by the Southern Pacific. For decades it was the town's front door — a place where neighbors gathered to watch for the train while hogs, cattle, cotton, pecans, cedar posts, and hides rolled out to distant markets. Passenger service ended in 1937 and the depot closed in 1968, but the building was rescued and moved to this site in 1976.
Michel's Drug Store
Marble Falls, TX
Ernst Gustav Michel, a German immigrant, and his wife Lillie Agnes opened a drugstore on this site in 1891. After fire destroyed the first store in 1905, Michel raised a three-story building with the drugstore and soda fountain below, a 300-seat opera house on the second floor, and the family's quarters above — only for it to burn again in the great block fire of 1927. All four of the Michel children who reached adulthood became pharmacists, and the family has kept a drugstore here since 1891.
Christian-Matern House
Marble Falls, TX
When Marble Falls was founded in the 1880s, Juliet Johnson — daughter of the town's founder — married George Christian, one of the ten men whose Texas Mining & Improvement Company platted and promoted the new town. This fine Queen Anne house was built for the couple in 1892, all decorative woodwork and protruding bay windows. In 1908 it passed to merchant and rancher Ivo Matern, later mayor of Marble Falls, whose family kept it for fifty-one years.