Houdaille Quarry (Summit Quarry; Commonwealth Quarry), Springfield, Springfield Township, Union County, New Jersey, USAi

Regional Level Types
Houdaille Quarry (Summit Quarry; Commonwealth Quarry)	Quarry
Springfield	- not defined -
Springfield Township	Township
Union County	County
New Jersey	State
USA	Country

NOTE: This quarry complex is located in Springfield, adjacent to the corporate limits of the city of Summit. It is historically referred to as being in Summit (Summit Quarry).

This quarry in the Orange Mountain (First Watchung) basalt began operating in the early 1900's under the ownership of Louis Keller. Originally named The Commonwealth Quarry, it was later obtained by the North Jersey Quarry Company. In the 1950's, the Houdaille Construction Materials Company purchased the quarry and ran it until 1977. In the early 1970's, the Interstate-78 road cut was excavated immediately adjacent to the pit, and across the access road between the quarry and the plant. The access road was in a cut. A bridge was constructed over this cut to accommodate I-78 while keeping the quarry functioning. However, the quarry closed only 2 or 3 years later in the aftermath of the 1973 oil embargo and the resulting increase in fuel and asphalt prices.

Quarry mineralization was found in seams, and in gas cavities of the two exposed amygdaloids. Most mineral specimens were collected from the upper amygdaloid. This horizon was exposed for the entire length of the main pit and also during the construction of I-78. The lower amygdaloid was exposed in a test pit near the northern end of the main quarry. It was exposed more extensively in a secondary pit mined near the southern end of the quarry during the last year or two of operation. Most of the pit was filled with earth and rock debris removed from other sections of the interstate project. The entire 170 acre site is now owned by the Union County Parks Department.

The Summit Quarry is most noted for crystals of greenockite. It was probably the most prolific of the several localities for this mineral in the region. Greenockite occurred in a thin, conformable zone called “the sulphide horizon” by Cummings (1987). This zone was near the top of “zone 4” of Cummings (1987), in dark, fresh appearing basalt just beneath where visible alteration ended. The horizon probably marks a redox boundary, a chemical front that moved progressively downward from the more permeable flow top scoria to the less permeable flow interior. It should be noted that a very similar, greenockite-bearing sulphide horizon occurs in the Prospect Park Quarry. The zone is also present at the Fanwood Quarry where it contained galena but not greenockite.

Within the sulphide horizon greenockite crystals were found on prehnite or datolite often associated with calcite. Small crystals of chalcopyrite were common in this material and crystals of galena were not rare.

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