October 5, 2017 - Owls Head, Maine
Well, it took me 58 years, but I finally got a look inside the Dragon Cement company, as opposed to just driving by. Looming over the mid-coast landscape since 1927, and I've been looking at it since 1960 the Dragon Cement company, straddling Route 1 in Thomaston, is the only primary producer of Cement in the Northeast US. Currently producing 500,000 tons of cement (used in the production of concrete for all types of construction) they ship throughout the eastern US. A long time ago it was a Martin Marietta division, sold to the Passamaquoddy indians, then owned by a Spanish firm, and now owned by a Mexican conglomerate Elementia.
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| Looking NE from 10 stories up, atop the tower) overview of the South Pit and North quarry pit bisected by Rt. 1 |
The active quarry on the North side is currently quarrying rock at 200 ft. below sea level!
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| Looking E, Rockland Harbor is in the distance (if you look real close there's a huge Cruise Ship on the southern end of the harbor) |
I participated in a 2 hour tour with the Thomaston Historical Society, led by the plant manager to see all operations of the plant. Quarrying the limestone, crushing and pulverizing, Lab and Quality Control operations, kiln firing the limestone to turn it into cement.
There is a hundreds of millions of years old limestone seam, that tilts 30 deg from South to North running through the site. They've got at least 30 more years of proven reserves (and probably more than that).
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| Drilling for blasting |
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| 150 Ton rock-hauler |
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| Lake on the W edge of the South pit |
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| Driving through the tunnel underneath Rt. 1 |
Pretty cool tour through and through. Great 360 deg views from atop the tower, looking to the Camden hills, coastline, and Weskeag and St. George river watersheds. Loved it!
