Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary

Granite quarrying was a successful industry on Swan’s Island from the 1890s to the late 1920s when the depression took hold. At first there were small quarries along the ridges especially in Minturn and in the North of the island. They were called "motions" and were worked throughout this time period by individual quarrymen when they had time off.

The largest quarry was in Minturn and it was called Baird’s Quarry. Boats under sail (in the 1890s) or steam boats, soon thereafter, would come into Burnt Coat Harbor and collect brick sized cut stone.

These stones were known as the "New York" or "Philadelphia" sized paving blocks. They were transported to and used mostly in Boston and New York City. While the quarry was functioning, boarding houses sprang up on the island to meet the needs of housing the workers. Eva Wheaton talks about the boarding houses in her audio.