Cranberry Furnace Company Quarry

Cranberry Furnace Company Quarry. . , In 1902, the Cranberry Furnace Company opened this quarry to provide lime for the Johnson City iron foundry. The quarry featured a crusher and a 924' railroad siding to load the crushed lime on to the ET&WNC train for transportation to Johnson City. A careful observer may notice the concrete foundations that are still visible at the Johnson City end of the quarry. , The quarry is located where three shallow sea sedimentary formations overlie each other. When these sediments were deposited, 500 million years ago, there was life in the oceans but no life, not even plants, on land. The quarry is located at the top of a formation called the Honaker Dolomite. The dolomite extends NE along the trail all the way to Elizabethton. Immediately NW of the quarry, the dolomite is overlain by the clay rich Nolichucky Shale. Look for shale chips and limestone ribbons in the cutting walls in the first 100 yards NW of the quarry. The shale is overlain by the Knox Group limestone which weathers to an orange soil. You can see outcrops of the Knox Group at the Milligan Depot and all along the trail to the trailhead where it is replaced by the Nolichucky Shale and the Honaker Dolomite. , , Department of Geosciences, East Tennessee State University