World's Largest Marble Exhibit

Vermont Routes
Peggy Shinn, Rutland Herald

The entrance to the exhibit is guarded by a large archway made of giant marble blocks - again, hard to miss. It looks suspiciously like the entrance to the town of Bedrock, and I found myself humming the theme song to the Flintstones as I walked underneath. Inside, the exhibit is much more stately. In the main entry hall are polished panels of Vermont marble, from Verde Antique - a stunning green stone - to Champlain Black - a black marble that still contains fossils -to Imperial Danby - the bright white marble that Vermont is famous for.

The film is probably the most informative part of the exhibit. Continuously running this 11-minute movie covers the history of the Vermont Marble Co. It even proudly mentions how Colonel Redfield Proctor, founder of the Vermont Marble Co. an ambitious politician, used his leverage as a U.S. Senator to ensure several structures, like the U.S. Supreme Court Building and Jefferson Memorial, were constructed of Vermont marble. Although Proctor had handed over control of the company to his son by the time he went to Washington, conflict of interest was clearly not an issue in 19th century politics.

Other interesting exhibits are the Geology Room with its "Living Earth" exhibit and the Geological/Historical Room with its pictures of early quarrying methods. Displays also help the non-geologically oriented distinguish a white marble from a green marble from a far-off cousin, granite.

But my favorite exhibit is the Marbles of the World located at the far end of the building. The entire room is lined with gigantic panels of marbles from all corners of the earth - from the powder-puff Champion Pink found in Tennessee to the almost biological-looking terracotta-colored Ramello Rosso from Italy. The whole room reminded me of the palaces in Europe where marble and other ornate stone was used like wallpaper.

From there, the exhibit spills you out in the gift shop full of marble lamps, cutting boards and the like.

The Vermont Marble Exhibit