Quarry Trail at Pipestone National Monument

Length: .25 mile, one way (half mile round trip)
Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

The Quarry Trail at Pipestone National Monument is a short, paved path that takes visitors to the active pipestone quarries. It is wheelchair accessible, but it is technically not ADA compliant. However, there is nothing anyone in a wheelchair should be concerned about. The trail is out in the open, so the sun will be beating down on a hot day. Wear a hat and apply sunscreen if avoiding the sun is important to you.

The trail begins to the right of the Visitor Center building. Prior to the trailhead is an exhibit quarry. While you can see the actual quarries when you walk the trail, you cannot climb down into them for a closer look. Instead, make the side trip to the exhibit quarry to see up close the relationship between the quartzite and pipestone layers. There is anywhere from five to fifteen feet of quartzite that must be removed before getting to the thin layer of pipestone (underneath the pipestone is 2,000 more feet of quartzite). This is backbreaking work that must be done with hand tools such as sledgehammers, shovels, and wedges.

Exhibit quarry at Pipestone National Monument

The Quarry Trails starts at the same place as the longer Circle Trail. It forks off to the right while the Circle Trail forks to the left.

Start of the Quarry and Circle trails at Pipestone National Monument

The first thing you’ll notice are the chunks of quartzite that are piled up along the trail at each quarry. When a person initially starts digging, the only place to pile the rubble is off to the side on the surface. Once the pit is wide enough, the rubble is simply moved to the rear as the quarry expands forward.

Piles of quartzite along the Quarry Trail in Pipestone National Monument

Only American Indians who are bona fide members of federally recognized tribes can get a permit to quarry for pipestone. Permits are granted on a year to year basis, and the permit holders have the option to renew every year provided they show up to quarry at least once a year. Some quarries have been in the same family for generations. However, most people give up long before ever reaching the pipestone, so there is a turnover. Even so, the current wait for a permit is between eight and ten years.

There are 56 quarries in all, each 16 feet wide. The pipestone seam runs for about .6 mile from where the current quarries are. Mark Pederson’s quarry, probably the largest of the active quarries, might be 50 feet wide. He’s been at it for 50 years, and he’s the fourth generation in his family to quarry at Pipestone National Monument. He can expand his quarry another 3,100 feet before reaching the end of the seam. Assuming his family has been quarrying for at least 75 years and their pit has only progressed 50 feet into the seam, at that rate his descendants can quarry for another 4,650 years. Needless to say, people will most likely become extinct on earth long before the pipestone runs out.

Mark Pederson’s quarry at Pipestone National Park

As mentioned, quarrying for pipestone is backbreaking work, something I would expect convicts on a chain gang to be doing, not people doing it for pleasure. 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). And the farther east the quarry progresses, the deeper the pipestone. The pipestone seam was exposed when an earthquake shifted layers of earth upwards, like a monster bursting up out of the ground. The pipestone layer is now at an eight degree slope downward from the current quarries, so at the far end of the seam it may be as deep as 150 feet. Nobody is going to dig that far down by hand.

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

Not too far down the Quarry Trail is the Joe Taylor Pit and a trail that branches off to the left. This is just a connector to the Circle Trail. The Quarry Trail continues straight, passing quarry after quarry until ending at the park road a quarter mile from the start. At anytime you feel that you’ve seen enough quarries, stop walking and just turn around and head back to the Visitor Center. There is no real reason to hike all the way to the end. If you want to hike the Circle Trail, which passes a lot of interesting exhibits and a waterfall, take the fork at the Joe Taylor Pit on the way back. The Circle Trail is just as easy and is only .75 mile long. It ends at the back of the Visitor Center.

Shortcut from the Quarry Trail to the Circle Trail begins at the Joe Taylor Pit, Pipestone National Monument

Back to the Top