Cayce's Martin Marietta (left) and Columbia's Vulcan quarries (right) straddling the Congaree River in 2015.

COLUMBIA — For over 150 years, Columbia has been home to a massive granite quarry operating just inland from the banks of the Congaree River.

Aside from the periodic blasting, the 500-foot-deep open-pit mine has quietly become as much a part of the community as the Historic Mill District neighborhoods perched on its rim.

But one day the granite will run out, and someone will have to figure out what to do with the giant hole left behind.

When will that happen?

Quarry officials say it won't be anytime soon, but ideas are already being tossed around among community leaders about the future of the site.

What can we put in the hole?

Vulcan Materials Company, which has operated the Columbia quarry since 2000, has operations across the country and in the Bahamas, Canada and Mexico.

The company has experience with decommissioning its former mining operations and repurposing them for public use, said Jack Fleming, retired Vulcan executive and part-time company consultant.

“It really depends on what the particular need of the community might be when that quarry is basically in its last days,” Fleming said.

Vulcan’s other properties have been redeveloped into public water sources for recreation and drinking, flood control structures, green spaces and filled in for new golf courses, housing and office developments, he said.

Though there is no timeline for when the Columbia site may be decommissioned — the company expects to spend at least a couple more decades there — Vulcan is already thinking about how the site could spend its second life, Fleming said.

The company has no current plans to expand the quarry, he said.

If filled in, the Columbia site could be home to a similar mixed-use redevelopment to The Vista, which also reclaimed former industrial land, he said.

The quarry’s proximity to the Congaree River has led many in the community to consider filling the quarry with water and becoming a lake or boat marina, possibly directly connected to the river’s main channel.

The pit could also serve as an emergency outlet for flooding, akin to the 2015 Midlands floods, when the quarry worked round-the-clock for two weeks providing stone to rebuild the collapsed Columbia Canal, Fleming said.

Other possibilities include converting the quarry into some other public green space, he said.

The conversion of the site into public space would play into the city’s longtime goal of connecting the riverfront into the downtown fabric, Columbia City Councilman Will Brennan said.

“I've been approached by folks with the idea of making a connection to the river and having a water feature come into the quarry,” Brennan said. “It's almost like an interior freshwater harbor for a boating push off, because it is past the conversion dam, where the Congaree does get deeper.”

The city has not had any official discussions about the future of the quarry site, but constituents of his district — which is the closest in the city to the quarry — have approached him multiple times with plans for a green space there, he said.

Vulcan stays in communication with the city and is a good community partner, Brennan said. He is confident the quarry will give the city “a seat at the table” when the time comes to decide what to do with the site.

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The quarry sits just outside the city limits in unincorporated Richland County. County officials didn't respond to requests for comment.

‘They were here first'

The quarry has been active since the 1880s, with some small-scale activity dating back to the 1860s, according to records kept by the nearby Olympia Mill Village Museum, which documents the history of the former neighborhoods built around the former cotton mills in the neighborhoods bordering the quarry.

The quarry provided extra income for residents in today’s Granby, Olympia and Whaley neighborhoods with family members working in the mills, museum operators and longtime residents Jake and Sherry Jaco said.

Sherry’s father worked in the quarry as a young man after losing a leg to a stray blasting cap as a child, she said.

The quarry predates the iconic mill buildings and surrounding homes, which opened around the turn of the 20th century.

“We have mixed feelings, because they were here first, and they have a business,” Sherry Jaco said. “They are receptive if we need something.”

The proximity to the quarry brings some quirks to the neighborhoods — periodic shaking from scheduled blasting, for one, they said.

“It’s always fun when new students come in and they hear that blast for the first time and think it's an earthquake,” Sherry Jaco said.

Vulcan has been a good neighbor overall, she said. The company has cut down on the effects of blasting and dust in the neighborhoods compared to prior owners of the site, and have sponsored exhibits at the museum and community activities, maintained roadside green spaces in the area and rerouted heavy trucks away from interior streets, she said.

The community was told as early as the 1990s — while the quarry was under different ownership — that the quarry could be decommissioned in around 20 years and be filled in with water.

“We all went home that night feeling so elated,” Jaco said. “We were all going to have lakefront property.”

The quarry has continued operating and has expanded since then. The Jacos still think a public park space on the site would be a good addition to the community, when the time comes.

“I think it would make a great green space with hiking and stuff,” Jake Jaco said. “You see all this stuff out West, it looks a little something like that.”

The quarry made headlines in 2020 and 2021, when two University of South Carolina students died from falls at the quarry in separate incidents.

The Jacos don’t blame the quarry for the student deaths. Mill District residents are well aware of the dangers of the nearby pit, they said.

The quarry has fences and warning signs, but every fall when students and Gamecock football return, the company worries about anyone trying to take an ill-fated shortcut and tries to raise awareness of the danger, Fleming said.

The quarry tries to find ways to bring neighbors into the pit and engage with the community in safer ways, he said. The company offers group tours, donates to several local nonprofits and sponsored an annual Quarry Crusher Run 5K from 2012 to 2020.

Aside from contributing construction material to the Columbia area’s buildings and roads, the quarry also employs over 50 people and contributes over $37 million a year in local economic impact, spokesperson Jack Bonnikson said in a statement. Vulcan’s other 16 locations generate over $300 million statewide, he said.

Caleb Bozard covers business, growth and development for the Post & Courier Columbia. He has previously written for The State and the Times and Democrat. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2023.

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