09/17/2026
The Natural Stone Institute's annual Study Tour brought stone professionals from across the country to Vermont yesterday, and we were honored to welcome the group to our E.L. Smith Quarry in Barre.
This quarry has been in continuous operation since 1883, when the Smith brothers first broke ground in Graniteville. Today, it's recognized as the world's largest deep-hole granite quarry, descending nearly 600 feet into a granite deposit hundreds of millions of years in the making. The Barre Gray™ granite extracted here is prized for its fine, even grain and exceptional performance qualities. It has built iconic monuments, civic buildings, and public spaces for over a century across the country.
Thank you to the NSI for coordinating another outstanding tour, and to every attendee who took the time to learn alongside our team. Events like this are how the next generation of architects, fabricators, and stone professionals come to understand and appreciate what it takes to bring natural stone from the ground into the built world. Polycor is proud to support NSI's mission, and we're already looking forward to the next one.