Active pipestone quarry at Pipestone National Monument

Visitors to Pipestone National Monument can see the active pipestone quarries by walking the Quarry Trail, a short, paved path that starts just outside the Visitor Center. Once at the quarry, you are looking at a thick layer of quartzite that is covered with about two feet of topsoil. The quartzite layer extends roughly 2,000 feet below the surface, and at one time there was another 2,000 feet above the surface, but all of that has been eroded away over the 1.7 billion years since it formed. The quartzite layer is actually separated into two sections by a thin layer of pipestone, a type of harden clay-like argillaceous rock called catlinite (pipestone is the common name) that is prized as a carving stone due to its softness. Today, the pipestone that was once thousands of feet below the earth’s surface is now roughly just 20 feet below.

Thin layer of pipestone underneath a massive layer of quartzite, Pipestone National Monument

American Indians have been quarrying pipestone for 3,000 years at various places around the Midwest. In addition to Pipestone National Monument, there are pipestone deposits in Ohio, Arizona, South Dakota, Kansas, Montana, and Wisconsin. A lot of these pipestone seams are much deeper, and the quality of the stone at some sites isn’t optimal for carving, which is why the Pipestone National Monument quarry is the most popular.

But how did ancient people discover a rock 3,000 years ago that is buried deep in the ground? Traditional Indian mythology says that hunters discovered the pipestone by following buffalo with red hair, hair colorized by the dust of the rock. True or not, that doesn’t explain how the pipestone got to the surface. That happened by way of an earthquake uplifting the earth, buckling layers upward like a monster bursting up out of the ground. While this exposed part of the pipestone seam, the entire layer slopes downward by eight degrees, so the farther from the current quarries, the deeper the pipestone will get. In all, the seam of pipestone extends about .6 mile from the quarries, and at the far end it may be 150 feet below the ground.

Today there are 56 active quarries at Pipestone National Monument, each 16 feet wide. To get a permit to quarry, a person must be an American Indian from a federally recognized tribe. Permit holders can hire outside help or have friends and family come along, but anyone entering the quarry must be a card-carrying tribal member. There are currently 23 tribes affiliated with the park, and permit holders come from as far away as Canada, Kentucky, and Arizona.

Two quarries are available for temporary use by multiple people, one for day use and one for monthly use. The rest are operated by one person or family on an annual basis, and these operators have the option to renew every year provided they show up to quarry at least once a year. For a newcomer to get a quarry, an existing permit holder has to quit quarrying and fail to renew the permit. The current wait list is eight to ten years. There is no wait for the day- and month-use quarries, though time is scheduled on a first come, first served basis.

Each permit holder can quarry as deep into the .6-mile long seam as desired. Some of the pits have been quarried by the same family for generations, so you would think they must be near or at the end of the seam. After all, a modern quarrying operation would certainly have everything out of the ground in no time. However, all of the work at Pipestone National Monument must be done using hand tools—sledgehammers, shovels, wedges—so progress is slow. The largest quarries aren’t but fifty feet wide, and that’s after nearly 100 years of quarrying. At that rate, it would take 6,200 years to reach the end of the seam. And remember, the pipestone at the far end is up to 150 feet deep. Nobody is digging down that deep with hand tools. Needless to say, people will most likely become extinct on earth long before the pipestone runs out.

I am surprised there is such a long wait list, because quarrying for pipestone is truly backbreaking work. First off, two feet of topsoil must be removed. Then there is anywhere from five to fifteen feet of quartzite, a rock as hard as steel, on top of the pipestone that must be broken into pieces and moved out of the way (mechanical pulleys can be built to lift the stone out of the pit). This is the type of work you’d see in the old chain gang movies like Cool Hand Luke. There are people who spend years quarrying and never get to the pipestone before they finally give up.

Tools used to quarry pipestone at Pipestone National Monument

Wedges shoved into cracks in the quartzite to help break it apart, Pipestone National Monument

Pipestone is similar to slate in that it forms in layers, so once a chunk of it is freed, it could break apart into thin sheets that cannot be carved. You’ll see plenty of these low-quality sheets lying around the quarries. For carving a pipe, the pipestone must be at least an inch thick, and a little thicker is better (the bottom layer of the pipestone is the best for carving). Some of the thinner layers can be used for jewelry, but much of it is discarded.

Thin slabs of pipestone in one of the quarries at Pipestone National Monument

The only power tool used at the quarry is a water pump, and these are operated by the National Park Service to pump water out of the quarry in the spring when the snow melts.

Powered pump for removing standing water from the quarries at Pipestone National Monument

While visitors to Pipestone National Monument cannot enter the actual quarries, there is an exhibit quarry just outside the Visitor Center that is accessible. You can walk right up to the quartzite wall to see the seam of pipestone at the bottom.

Exhibit quarry at Pipestone National Monument

Those who quarry the pipestone can do whatever they want with it once it leaves the park. Within the park, no pipes or raw pipestone can be sold. There is a gift shop in the Visitor Center, and jewelry and other types of pipestone sculptures are available, but no pipes. Some of the local artists sell their pipes in town at retail stores or out of their own workshops at home.

Pipestone-carved bowl and wooden stem on display at the Pipestone National Monument Visitor Center

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