Tri-City History A-Z in Photographs #17: Quarries — Beginning in the 1950s, developers started digging in the Dumbarton Quarry for rock for roads and construction. The quarry was in use until 2007, after which time the planning began for the future use of the land. In 2021, after many years of preparation, the Dumbarton Quarry Campground opened for public use. Photo courtesy of EBRPD

Tri-City History A-Z in Photographs #17: Quarries

Fossils, gravel for roads, and future parks: the unusual history of East Bay quarries

By: Kelsey Camello, for the Washington Township Museum of Local History

June 3, 2025

Quarry: an excavation or pit, usually open to the air, from which building stone, slate or the like, is obtained by cutting, blasting, etc…

The rock sorting and crushing plant at the Bell Quarry produced large orders of rock and sand for roads and other construction. Originally the Osgood Quarry was just for extraction, with crushing being added by the Bells around 1950. Photo courtesy of Washington Township Museum of Local History

The ‘boy paleontologists’ are at work in Bell Quarry digging for ice age fossils. The Pleistocene fossils found at Irvington were so unique that the era they marked was named the Irvingtonian Era. In 1945, LIFE Magazine sent a photographer to record the boys and their adviser Wesley Dexter Gordon at work in the quarry. Photo courtesy of Washington Township Museum of Local History

Henry Curtner used gravel from the quarry located at the end of Scott Creek Road to cover the miles of roads cut to traverse his property. The men in this picture are loading a truck using a conveyor system. Photo courtesy of Washington Township Museum of Local History

Beginning in the 1950s, developers started digging in the Dumbarton Quarry for rock for roads and construction. The quarry was in use until 2007, after which time the planning began for the future use of the land. In 2021, after many years of preparation, the Dumbarton Quarry Campground opened for public use. Photo courtesy of EBRPD

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