Day 6  Change of plans:  enough history (for now).  We went to Rockport, Massachusetts, a charming New England seaport town.

                                                                                    

                                           

Today's Vernon's birthday.  I surprised him with peanut butter icing on brownies while he was out getting coffee at Dunkin Donuts.  (No electric at our primitive campsite to make coffee this morning)  He said I could say his age:  78

First stop near Rockport was the Babson Farm Granite Quarry. (All this info is taken from the Massachusetts Dept of Environmental Manage't)  The water is 60 feet at the deepest point.  In the early 1800's they had to remove the water a bucket at a time to keep their working area dry.  Then, by 1860 they used steam engines running day and night to remove the water.

                                                                                        

Derricks were used in the 1800's to bring the heavy granite stones from the floor of the quarry to the surface  They borrowed large ship techniques with pulleys, tackles, a mast and a boom.  By 1910, the masts were as high as 96 feet tall and at that time they had 4 derricks working at the quarry.

                                                                                

These large iron staples were called "dead men".  It took at least 6 cables, all attached to the top of the mast and then anchored to dead men like this one, to hold a derrick in place.

                                                                                    

In 1910, granite from this quarry was shipped all over the hemisphere -- to make streets in Havana Cuba to towns in Chile.  

                                                                                

This picture of the stony beach on Cape Ann was taken from the top of the 'grout pile' -- a mountain of waste granite pieces dumped here over a period of may years.   At best over 75% of the large blocks split crookedly and had to be relegated to the grout pile.

                                                                                 

Some pictures of the charming town of Rockport, one of the oldest working fishing seaports on the east coast:

                                                                                     

                                                                                  

                                                                                    

This breakwater is made of -- you guessed it -- blocks of granite!  We walked out to the end and took pictures of some individual blocks of different colors -- see below:

                                                                                

                                                                                  

Imagine slices of these granite blocks after they grind the surface smooth and then polish it.

                                                                                    
 

One of the cute shops on Bearskin Neck (a little street lined with shops and restaurants going out into Cape Ann).  Nearly all the doorsteps of these shops were granite.

                                                                                 

                                                                                   

A pretty granite walkway to a house

Tomorrow we head to a campground near Acadia National Park.