1916 WV Geological Survey; Bakerton Quarries

Bakerton Quarries.— Engle Station is located 15 miles east of Martinsburg, in Jefferson County, on the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Bakerton is a small settlement located two miles to the northeast of Engle and connected at that place by a switch. At Bakerton are located the quarries and kilns of the Washington Building Lime Company owned by the Standard Lime and Stone Company. The plant was started in 1895 and is the largest center of lime burning in the State, the lime from this stone being held in high favor in the eastern markets.

The quarry has been worked to a depth of 50 to 60 feet, the kilns being located at the level of the top of the quarry and close to it, and the rock is hauled up the incline tracks by cable and dumped into the kilns. The face of the quarry runs nearly north and south and the rock dips to the west. The cover of clay varies from 2 to 20 feet in thickness, being thickest nearest the ends of the quarry. The limestone is hard, compact, and somewhat crystalline. The lower 12 feet is marked by white calcite streaks. The next ledge of 12 to 15 feet above is blue in color and is used with the next upper 10 feet of light-colored stone. Under the red clay cover is a five-foot ledge of hard blue limestone not used for commercial lime. The limestone at this quarry was analyzed in the Survey laboratory with the following results:

Lime carbonate ………………………………………………………. 95.55
Magnesium carbonate ………………………………………….. 2.44
Silica …………………………………………………………………………. 0.12
Iron and alumina ……………………………………………………. 1.01
Sulphur …………………………………………………………………….. 0.15
Phosphorus ……………………………………………………………… 0.02
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99.29

This limestone analysis was from the light-colored stratum and the lime is of very high-grade, not unlike the stone at Martinsburg in its chemical composition, but it seems to differ in its physical character as it burns into a more satisfactory commercial lime which is snow-white and strong. It is possible that the better results come from mixing the blue rock with the white.

There are 16 iron-clad draw kilns six feet in diameter and 20 feet high with a capacity of 250 bushels of lime each daily. There are three additional similar kilns located at Engle Station supplied with stone from the Bakerton quarries. There are also at Bakerton six stone-pot kilns for burning agricultural lime, each holding 300 bushels.

There is a Clyde system hydrator plant with a capacity of 12 to 15 tons daily of lime hydrate. This plant is also equipped with grinding machine for lime in the form of a Stedman cage disintegrator and a Jeffrey bag-packing machine, and a complete barrel plant with daily capacity of 1,000 barrels. The capacity of the Bakerton and Engle plants is about 35,000 bushels of lime a week.

This quarry and plant like all the other Standard Company plants is operated almost entirely by electric power with electric hoists, pumps, and air-compressor. This is one of the largest lime plants in the East.