Upon seeing photos of a soapstone bowl site that I'd found, a friend told me about a bowl workshop next to his property.   Although he didn't recall any quarry rocks, he described scores of bowl pieces covering the ground.   The only problem was, it had been 40 years since he'd been in to see them. Based on his recollection of the area, and accompanied by him on one exploration, I made several searches, with no luck.   The search area is very steep with coves and ridges; I found pockets of soapstone rocks, but nothing that looked like a bowl workshop.   On my fourth visit, I finally found a few examples of bowls, but I still haven't located the main area.   Perhaps they've been carried off over the years, although that would be lots of work carrying heavy, relatively worthless rock over that distance... Dec. 2018 - Jan. 2019

I encountered occasional soapstone rocks with odd holes, but I think these were caused by some natural process in the soft altered rock.

Next to a creek was the remains of an old stone furnace from a still.

Along with some old barrel bands...

This appears to be a preform bowl, in a very early stage of production. If so, it's the first and only quarry spot I've come across at this site...

Possible broken fragment of a rough unfinished bowl. Outside (above) and inside (below) views...

Trametes versicolor When I'm not finding what I'm looking for, I can always be assured of at least seeing some nice fungi!

I finally found clear evidence of a bowl workshop - a broken bowl preform

Bowl bottom

Nearby was a fragment from an unfinished bowl

Half of a preform and a bowl fragment

All Text & Images: Copyright 2018-2019.