This is the third effort to document the history of the Mohegan Quarry.

The first history was compiled in the 1999 by Judy Shepard a Mohegan resident and president of the Yorktown Land Trust. Ms. Shepard was the guiding force in getting the Town of Yorktown to establish Sylvan Glen Park Preserve and open up a series of trails using many of the interior roads once used by the quarry operation. Regrettably, all of Ms. Shepard’s research was lost.

The second history was compiled in 2014 by Yorktown resident Sigmund Lasker and the Yorktown Historical Society and included a talk and a visit to the quarry. While there is no written record of Mr. Lasker’s presentation or of a video that he may or may not have created, thankfully some of his handwritten notes and documents he was able to gather were saved — in three manila envelopes that were buried away in boxes left by a former Society member.

This web site is the third effort to document the quarry’s history and is one component of a multi- faceted project undertaken by the Yorktown Trail Town Committee. In addition to documenting the history of the quarry, the project also includes the installation of interpretive signs at the quarry alongside remnants of the abandoned quarry operation. The signs describe how the granite was quarried, cut and finished and include many historic photographs.

The history was compiled from a wide range of Sources.

Sadly, more detailed documents relating to the various companies that owned the quarry and what parcels were leased and/or purchased when and by what entities have been lost, leaving both gaps in the history as well as inconsistencies that cannot be resolved.  For example, newspaper articles refer to a Mohegan Granite Company and a Mohegan Granite Quarrying Company. Were they the same company or two different ones? And long after Grenci & Ellis purchased the quarry in 1920, newspaper clippings still referenced the Mohegan Granite Company. A 1929 article referred to both the Mohegan Granite Company and Grenci & Ellis in the same sentence as being providers of stone, and the Mohegan Granite Company was mentioned in a 1940 article. ¹