Vernon Earl “Skinny” Childers, read a report published in 1951 by The University of Texas that stated that the most “exceptionally pure limestone” anywhere could be found in the Marble Falls area.

He had a vision that the calcium carbonate product, a powder fine substance made by pulverizing this limestone would be used in a variety of industrial applications.

With the superior quality of this limestone deposit, there was a great business opportunity so in 1952 he formed Pure Stone Company and started building a crushing and processing facility in Marble Falls down adjacent to the railroad depot.

The limestone is blasted and hauled from across the river about a mile south of town. Some of the photos below shows my dad, Cecil Lewis loading up a shot with dynamite to blast some of the first rock.

Another photo shows the completed plant in 1955 after it was in operation. My dad was instrumental in building the plant and getting it up and running.

He also owned the dump trucks that hauled the blasted rock from the quarry site into the crusher in town.

By the summer of 1956, he and Mr. Childers had a parting of the ways. He left and didn’t return for about 10 years. He returned to take over the trucking operations from 1965 until 1970, which coincided with my high school years. That gave me a unique insight into the operation as I was around watching everything going on.

The quarry was an open mine operation for nearly the first 20 years. Just prior to our final departure with the trucking company, they started an underground mining operation and have been doing so for more than 45 years now.

The operation was sold by Mr. Childers in 1977. It became The Calcium Carbonate Company and then later it was sold to J.M. Huber Co. They continue to operate the business now. It has expanded greatly over the years under the Huber ownership.

I’m not sure how many ways that calcium carbonate is used now but when I was around it was used in making plastics, paints, glass, cleansers, cosmetics and cattle feed to name a few uses.